Wii Fit – I have one…….

For sometime now I have been thinking about buying a Wii Fit. I have heard how much fun they can be and I thought I it would be a bit of exercise that we can all do and have a bit of a laugh whilst doing it. I was speaking to a work colleague who I hadn’t seen or spoken too for sometime and I commented on how well she looked and how much weight she had lost. She said that she had been using her Wii Fit everyday for ½ hour and it had really worked. A friend of Gary’s at work was selling their Wii Fit so we bought it and last Wednesday decided to set it up. The first thing you have to do it set up your ‘mini me’. This is comical in it self. Once you have done this then you have to register. This takes you through a series of tests, finding your COG (centre of Gravity). You have to put your height and date of birth and then it takes your weight and BMI. Obviously it isn’t accurate but it gives you an idea. You then have to put in a weight loss target. You then have to do a balance test and from all this it will then give you your Wii Age. Well on the first day mine was 40 (real age 42) which I was pleased about. Gaz’s wasn’t too good, his was 64 (real age 51- opps!)
You can then go onto the training bits and this is split into 4 categories.
1) Yoga
2) Muscle Workouts
3) Aerobic Exercise
4) Balance Exercise

We started off on the balance exercises. This includes heading footballs – very funny when you get hit by a football boot!!, Slalom, ski jump, table tilt and tightrope walking. The better you get the more activities you open. I tell you what its knackering.
The aerobic exercises are things like hoola hooping, step and jogging. These get your heart pumping.
If anyone is in two minds about getting one I would encourage them to get one most definitely. It‘s far better than sitting in front of the TV!
By the way I have lost 3lb and my Wii age is at the moment 35!!

Thanks for reading

End of an Era………..

Some of you who have read my blog may be aware that back in June I was told that my job would be going and that I had to apply for another job or opt to take voluntary redundancy. Well things have moved on a bit now, I didn’t get the job I applied for – Shame!! – Not that I wanted it in the first place but I had to apply for one. Well I was told last week that my redundancy request had been agreed and I would be getting my letter and package through the post imminently.
Well the letters were due out last Friday but due to the postal strike that is about, they also sent them by e-mail which I picked up on Monday. My package was very nice, thank you very much…. I would hope so after 17 years of service and I have been given a final day of between 14th and 31st December. So I am now in my last couple of months in full time employment and it is exciting as well as very scary! I have worked full time since I was 19 (I have never had time off for children as I have never given birth). The only length of time I have had off was when I was sick for 4 months.
Will I get another job – yes I will eventually but there are a few things that I want to do first, a couple of training courses I want to do to get some more qualifications, sort my house out and work on my website up and running. So I am now on countdown! I have 3 weeks holiday at the end of October when I am going to Florida and then I will only have a couple of weeks left.

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Craft Day – Craft Barn – 18th September 2009

Me and my mate PAM went to the Craft Barn on Friday for a couple of craft classes. However they cancelled one class as there was only Pam & I booked on it. Pam was disappointed as she had bought the stamps that we were going to use in the afternoon and needed some ideas. However Carol Cockburn, who was running the classes, had bought in her samples and Pam took some pictures.
The morning class had 3 of us in there and we were making a Christmas card using a lovely set of stamps called Penguin Pandemoneum. The stamps are so versatile and easy to use and to colour.

I really enjoyed making this card apart from the glitter. I hate glitter!!!!

The backing was made from scrunched up paper, covered with glimmer mist, dried with a hot gun and then ironed. It gives a lovely effect.

Needless to say after the class had finished we went and had lunch at Browsers and then back to the Craft Barn for a bit of shopping. I ended up buying the penguin stamps along with some other stuff which may get to see the light of day!!

On the way home we stopped off at Copthorn and went in the Hobby Craft store in the garden centre there. Bought a couple more bits… you can never have too much.
It was a lovely day – thanks Pam


Thanks for reading

Holiday in Weymouth – 5th September 2009

Holiday time… yey!!! Off we all went on our jollies down to Weymouth. We stayed at the Weymouth Bay holiday park in a caravan owned by the mother of a friend of Cyd & Fel’s. They came too!
The journey down there was a bit of a mare. Traffic around Ringwood was very heavy. We took 2 cars as the boys wanted to play golf and there was no way we could fit all of the luggage into one car and 2 sets of golf clubs.
The caravan was very nice, double glazed and centrally heated.
The weather for the week was good. It was a bit over cast & misty on the Sunday when we went to LULWORTH COVE. It was warm though.
Monday, the boys played golf and we girls stayed back at the caravan. We have a chilled out day. Gary & I explored the campsite looking at all the different caravans.
Wednesday we went to BOVINGTON TANK MUSEUM. Never knew there were so many different types of tanks. Gaz was in his element because he loves war stuff. It was quite interesting.
Thursday was my day because we went to MONKEY WORLD. What a lovely place this is. We have all seen it on the telly but seeing it in the flesh was something else. We saw all the favourites including the Batchelor boys, the ugly monkeys, capuchins, orang-utans, spider monkeys and the gibbons. We saw Jeremy, one of the head keepers and spoke to Mike, the other head keeper there. I was shocked to find out that they get no government funding but keep it going by donations. He also said that Gordon (for those of you that have watched the programme will know he is the orang-utan that was born in the park and raised by Mike) is going to be a dad in the Spring!
There is a lovely memorial to Jim Cronin and Charlie, a lovely brass sculpture.
My favourite place though is the baby orang-utans. I spent about an hour watching them playing etc. They are so ugly but the cutest things you have seen. Unfortunately you can’t see much on the pictures because the fence got in the way but I could have stayed there all day watching them. They are so human….
On the Friday the boys played golf again and Cyd and I went down to the seafront, had a cup of tea and watched the world go by.
Saturday, unfortunately we had to come home again. We stopped off in the New Forrest for a cup of tea and cake in Fordingbridge. The journey home from there was very painless and quick.
It was a lovely week and a nice rest …. Roll on October for the next holiday!

Thanks for reading

Crafty Day at Guildford – 22nd August 2009

A few weeks ago an IMAG-E-NATION friend GRETA arranged a crafty day in Guilford for about 20 ladies from the forum. I was a great get together where we chatted, crafted a bit, chatted, drank tea and ate plenty. Greta’s son produced a fantastic buffet which kept us going during the day.
TONI, our ‘local Stampin Up’ demonstrator came all the way from Tamworth and did a couple of show and tells. Here are my efforts at the card. She also showed us a cute book mark come whatever you want to use it for. A lion, she also made a ladybird. I haven’t made up mine yet but here is a picture of Toni’s lion. Hopefully I will get mine made soon…if only I can remember where I put it!!!
My mate PAM also did a show and tell – a lovely little box just made from scalloped edged squares that are cut using the scalloped edged square nestabilities. She has a tutorial of how to make the box on her Crafty Bits blog HERE.
They are really cute boxes and so easy to make and can be finished in so many different ways. I just wish I could find mine!!!
Helen, one of the other ladies organised a bring a buy sale where we bought our craft stuff that we didn’t use anymore and I took a few bits and made about £35 which I was quite chuffed about.
It was a great day and I had lots of fun meeting new and old friends. Roll on to the next one!


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Fab Blog Candy

Hi

There is some fab blog candy here. New Quickutz Silhouette cutting system. Open to anyone with a UK address.

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My Baby is 21….

My little boy was 21 on the 24th August and unlike all good mothers I left making his card to the last minute!!
I wanted to do one from the ‘LA PASHE’ flipping kids range but there wasn’t anything that was really suitable for him or who looked like him so I had to troll through my folder of downloaded decoupage sheets and came across the ‘sexy bum’. Now I know I got is from someone on the IMAG-E-NATION forum but for the life of me I can’t remember who it was. But here is the finished card.
I printed out the back ground and stuck that to an A5 card. I then made up the decoupage picture and stuck it to the front. I did the message on the laptop, printed it out and then used ‘Spellbinders, Nestabilities’ to layer and matt it. I was quite pleased with the finished effect and not bad for being made in an hour.
As for my son… he loved it!


Thanks for reading

Note to self……..

NEED TO UPDATE BLOG MORE REGULARLY……….

Christmas Craft Day

Last Friday - 14th Aug - my mate Pam came over for our yearly MOT craft day. The garage she uses is just down the road from my house and each year she when her car's MOT is due we have a day of craft.

This year I deceided to have a theme for the day and that theme was 'CHRISTMAS'. Now although my mate loves buying christmas craft stuff (she had loads!!) she is a bit adverse to making a Christmas card so I thought I would get her to make some this year. And she did!! The cards that she made can be seen here on her crafty blog.

Here are the cards I made.

1) The first card was made using a christmas tree die. The die can be found here on this site. I cut it using the cuttlebug onto purple mirri card. I made two cards, one using the tree image and one using the negative cut. I stuck tyhem both on to a black card blank, added a greeting and some glittery peeloffs. I thought they looked really effective.

2) This card I copied the idea from Pam who copied if from Karen on the Imag-e-nation forum. The Christmas Tree was embossed onto card using the Cuttlebug. It was then cut into 3 and stuck onto some turquoise mirri card. This in turn was stuck onto an A5 card. I used a snowflake brad from a box that Pam got from Artymiss (which I think I may have to purchase!!). The gems I already had together with the bow. The greeting is from some that Pam had bought at QVC. I thought it looked quite stylish.




3) This a similar to the above card, however i did not split the tree into 3 this time but layered it onto red and green mirri card. I used a gold snowflake brad for the top of the tree and used green and red sticky gems to decorate the tree. I put a hole either side underneath the topper and threaded through some red organza ribbon and tied a false bow. Again not the normal type of tree I would have made but again I think it looks classy!





4) The following card was a very quick and easy card. I used the little Christmas embossing folders for the cuttlebug and embossed them onto gold mirri card. I them cut them out using circle and square nesties and layered them with the scalloped edge circles and squares. I then stuck them onto a green pearlescent DL card that I had in mt stash. I finished it off with the greetings from Pam's stash that she got from QVC.





5) The last card I made was an embossing folder from Sizzix and I chalked it up using subtle colours. I them cut it using the oval nesties and layered onto gold mirri card cut with the scallopped edge ovals. The greeting was a folder from the same set and this was done on gold mirri card and stuck onto the black base card.
Simple card but effective.

What a proactive and most enjoyable day.

Thanks for looking

Even more........

The following card was made for my great nephew. I printed the greeting directly onto the card. I added some black patterened paper across the top of the card and stuck silver stars on to make it look like space. I used green sticky ribbon along the bottom of the paper and added a decoupage alien. Can't remember where I got the image from. I though it came out quite well.



The card below was made for my brother in law. Again I printed the greeting directly onto the card. I added a pryamid decoupage picture of a plane and added some silver peeloffs just to finish it off.

The following card was made for my friend for her brother. He is a keen golfer! The image is fron Cuddly Buddly Country Gentleman range. I have just added a peel off golf ball and peeloffs greetings. I have added it to a DL card.

That's it for this week. Still have a few more to make that will be for another day!

Thanks for reading

2. Back to Basics

The next cards I have made are going back to basics, using peeloffs and paper & peeloffs pens.

Very quick cards but effective I think.

Thanks for reading.

I've been making cards again!

August is a horrible month as I have a lot of birthdays, which mean a lot of cards need to be made. Over the weekend I managed to do quite a few.

1. Shoe card

I am really pleased with this card and I don't think the picture does it justice. The shoe image came from Jak (thanks Jak).
I used an A5 card, covered it in some patterned paper that I had in my stash. I wrapped some black sheer ribbon round the paper and made a bow. The flower in the corner was from the Sizzix big daisy dye. The centre of the flower is a self adhesive gem. I also stuck gems round the button on the shoe and on the greeting.

Thanks for reading

Cyd's Creation

My mate Cyd wanted to make a card for this guy at work whose very macho and goes to the gym quite a bit. He hates anything girly, glittery etc, so what does she do.... a glittery card. I found the image on the internet and we decoupaged it. The she glittered the cape and the leopard prints on his suit. She added peeloffs and glittered those. He is also a fan of football, so the inside she stuck some more peeloffs and glittered those. The pictures don't do it justice but it was very very glittery. He was mose impressed!

The trouble is now that she really enjoyed doing the card and keeps threatening to go and raid my craft room..............

Thanks for reading

Another week gone by...

Where are these weeks going, they seem to be going so quickly. The last few weeks have been very busy especially at work. Just over a minth ago I was told that my job of Absence manager was going in the lastest rounds of the 'restructure'. Vicky & I have had to put together a training session and feed this out to all the team leaders as they will be doing the sickness once we have gone. I have had to go for another job, but I have also put down for voluntary redundancy, which is what I really want.
I have had enough of working there now after 17 years and want a change. If I do get the redundancy, i will find myself another job eventually but there are things that I want to do like 'life laundry' my home, do a course on Sage payroll and of course lots of crafting. Eventually I want to move away from her down to the West Country like Devon or Dorset way. I would love a b&b or tea rooms. have to get Gaz away first though....

Anyway we should be hearing something next week supposedly but knowing my place it probably won't be until the end of the month. I just want to know so I can make plans.

Tuesday I went out for a regular meet with friends from my old job at the Pru that I left 17 years ago. We still meet up about every 5 - 6 weeks and have done since 1993. We went to the katarina at the Marina for a nice meal and a catch up.

My plans for this weekend is chillaxing. Gaz is working lates tomorrow, lates Saturday and working Sunday due to Pride so I have all that time on my own, Saturday morning I have a massage so am looking forward to that. For the rest of time I hope to be making some more cards.

Watch this space.

Thanks for reading.

One more......

....... then I need a lie down!!

This card is made for my brother in law who will be 60 next week. I have used the a decoupage image from the 'flipping Men' range from LaPashe which can be bought from the Imag-e-nation shop. I covered the front with some card with tools on. Not sure where I got the card from but I think it must have been a show that Pam and I have been to.

His name and age have been cut from Sizzix lollypop range of numbers and letters. I cut them on the cuttlebug using some paper used from craftwork cards paper blox. This was from the chocolate range. They are stuck on with sticky pads to raise them from the card.

I have used one of the cards specially made for the flipping range of decoupage sheets. I'm not sure if I will use the card again because they are quite big and I know the imagaes do fit on an A5 card. The insert will cause a bit of a problem but I will sort it out.

Thanks for reading

More Cards!!!!!

Here are some more cards that I made last weekend. The first card was done using nestabilities tag cut in blue and green card. Ran through the cuttlebug using the swiss dots embossing folder. The flowers are die cut decoupage that I think I got from the Imag-e-nation shop. It has been finished off with some gold peel offs. I t was all put onto a cream square card.



The card below was placed on a 5 x 7 white pearlescent card. The backing card was cut with a nestabilities tag die (I have just got into using them, Can you tell? lol :-) ) then ran through the cuttlebug using the swiss dots folder again! The topper is one of my favourite flower fairies. It's a dufex decoupage. I then added pink organza ribbon and some pink self adhesive gems. I've left the bottom bit for a greeting but I am not sure what I am going to use it for yet.

The card below is a C6 gate fold card. I have covered the card in paper and edged it with a silver peeloff boarder. The topper is another dufex flower fairy layered onto card which has been cut using the nestabilaties oval die and scalloped edge die. It was stuck onto one side of the gate fold.

Over the last week I have really got back into my cardmaking and have now remembered how relaxing it is.

Thanks for reading.

Stampin Up Challenge part 2

Here is the 2nd part of the challenge, to make a gift bag and matching card. Toni sent us the template and the papers from Stampin up and then we had to use our imagination to create a bag & matching card.
I printed the template onto my paper - that way I only needed to cut it once. Copied that idea from Pam. However I made sure I didn't have anything else queued on the printer.... lol :-).
The flowers used were from my stash. Not sure where I bought them from. The middles were from a pack I got from Mulberry.
Ribbon was used to make the handles for the bag and I finished the card and the bag off with sticky gems.
I really enjoyed doing the bag and I am sure that I will be making some more in the future.
Thanks for reading.

Stampin Up Challenge

Well I have never done anything like this before but Toni did a sketch card and we had to make a card to that sketch using the stuff if possible that we had purchased from Stampin Up in July.

The card is A5 size on hammered off white card. The papers used were from Stampin Up that were sent to us with our order.

The image is a dufex flower fairy. I stuck her on a piece of greem card that had been run through the cuttlebug using the swiss dots folder. this was then layered onto some strippy paper. Dotty paper was placed on the card, the image stuck on the top left edge.

I cut a piece of the strippy paper to put across the bottomof the card to look like a ribbon. I used the tag punch to cut out the greeting mat and the greeting is from craftwork cards.

The card was finished off with 3 sticky backed gems.

I was very pleased with the finished effect.

Thanks for reading.

Busy Girl

I have been a busy girl over the weekend and here are the cards that I have made.

The first card is from the Daisy and Dandelion range. This one being the bear. The 'ingredients' for the card are as follows: 5in x 7in white pearlescent card, Daisy & Dandelion teddy decoupage, paper from their range, finished off with a silver greeting.


The next card is from the 'Flipping Men' range from La Pashe. This is the Flipping Boxer. I used an A4 piece of card, folded it to an A5 size. I cut the apperture using the 'Creative Memories' cutting system. A piece of acetate is stuck over the opening and then another piece of A5 card with the oval cut in is stuck over that. The card was finished off with an insert.

Here is the inside view!

The next one is a sympathy card that my friend asked me tp make. The lily decoupage has been recycled. It was from a project that I made from a workshop at the 'Make it' show. Can't remember if it was at Thorpe Park or the Farnborough show. I didn't like the card we made then. Pam - do you remember the class? The card is a pearlescent DL card and has been finished with a gold peel off greeting.

This card was made for my great niece's birthday who is 2 next week. The card is a 5in x 7in pearlescent white. A dufex flower fairy stuck on blue card which has been run through the cuttlebug swiss dots folder (my favourite) and finished off with a pale blue ribbon, silver greeting and 3 little jewels.

The last one made was again from the Daisy & Dandelion set. Decoupage Teddie matted onto card cut on the oval nesties. Paper and embelishments come from the same range. The greeting is also from the daisy and dandelion range.


Now I need to go and have a rest after all this card making!. LOL

Thanks for reading