A right mixed bag

So sorry all, another long gap between posts but I really haven't had time to scratch my you know what, let alone sit down and get my head around blogging.  Between all the traveling backwards and forwards to visit Auntie and Uncle and keep an eye on them, I've been madly working to tight deadlines and getting my tax return done and dusted.  I hate those forms, I really can't make head nor tail of the damn thing, but I blunder my way through it every year hoping I haven't made any major mistakes that will come back and bite me, lol.

Health wise I've not been great either.  My Lupus seems determined to remind me everyday that it's there and not going anywhere.  I did drop one of my medications last summer.  It is actually chemo drugs used for breast cancer, but in smaller doses it can really help several autoimmune conditions such as Lupus.  It did work very well for me keeping the chest, back and shoulder pains at bay, and I only had a few bad flare ups while I was on it.  However as with most drugs it does have side effects, and these finally got to the point where I just couldn't live with them anymore.  So after a very hard decision and a long talk with my Consultant I stopped taking them, but boy do I know it now.  I'm back to all the daily aches and pains and the extreme fatigue.  Heyho, that's life, sometimes you get stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea with no apparent way of getting out.  It will get better though, positive thoughts can help tremendously so I'm not giving up just yet, or getting down about it.  It is what it is, better to find ways of working with and around it rather that than giving in to it, wasting time feeling sorry for myself and getting nowhere. 

Within the family we have also had some turmoil and bad news which has made my blood boil.  It's rocked my faith in human nature I can tell you, and it's made me very unsettled and unable to concentrate properly (just what I need at the moment!), I just can't comprehend how people can act in such a manor and still live with themselves.  So you see blogging has been the last thing on my mind.  I may elaborate more on this story later, I'm just waiting to see what happens next.

Enough waffle.  Onto some crafting bits and bobs.

Polka Doodles has 2 shows on Create and Craft today (Saturday)  at 11am and 3pm. She has some gorgeous new stamps for all and will be demoing her latest CD.  Having spoken to her the demos are going to be well worth watching.  So if you're going out set those recorders.

Kuretake sent me some more lush goodies to make them a Valentine's project.  I decided to do something a little different, so I got a wooden picture frame and a wooden word from HobbyCraft and set to work.  This is what I came up with.  I hope you like it.

Items used were;

Kuretake

Decoration Heart corner punch

Funky Heart punch

Black Painty pen

Gold Painty pen

Zig Art and Graphic Twin pens – 76, 77, 23, 29 and 260

Heart and Triangle clips pack

Queens Gold Embossing Powder

Red Ribbon pack

Red Assorted Fibre pack

Red Gem Accent Sticker pack

Brown Gem Accent Sticker pack

Zig two-way glue

Other

Plain wooden picture frame - Hobbycraft

Wooden ‘love’ word – Hobbycraft

Selection of vintage style printed papers in creams and brown (I used Brenda Walton Maison papers)

Selection of rubber stamps – Rose spray, dotty background, antique script, floating dandelion seeds, flourishes and suitable sentiment (I used Creative Expessions stamps)

Buff, brown and gold acrylic paints

VersaMark Inkpad

It will be on the Kuretake website next week along with the full instructions for making it. 

I have 2 Polka Doodles challenge cards for you today.  The first is week 3's card which was to make a project for a new home and I used papers from the the new cd Paper Boutique III.  The lush spotty ribbon is from The polka Doodles website as well.  The second card is this weeks challenge card (week 4) which was set by Tracie and she wanted to see some party projects.

This is another sample for Nikky using one of the House stamps on acetate, with silver leaf on the back and glaze pens used to colour i in.

Now here are some more cards for you to peruse.  The first one is a valentines card which I used an ATC on for a topper.  The remainder ones are cards that have recently been in Making Cards magazine.

Have a good weekend all and happy crafting.