I must be getting old...

Not only do policeman look ever younger, but time flies so fast! I can't believe that we're halfway through September already...
The last few months have been interesting - to say the least! - but at least I will never be able to complain that my life is in any way boring. For the first time in more years than I care to remember, I don't have a child in infant school any more. My youngest is now in year 3, and my youngest son has made the move to High School. Boy, do I feel old now! My eldest daughter is pregnant with our second grandchild, probably a girl. Now all she needs to do is to sort the rest of her life...
We have 2 new additions to the family, in the form of 2 very mischievous kittens - Rafi and Sasha. Naughty they may be, but they are soooo cute. :)
I haven't been totally idle on the craft front, although I haven't done as much as I would have like to have done. I'm very proud of the fact that I managed to create a template for my craft robo with which to cut a pyramid shaped exploding box. Little things and little minds...

Grand store re-opening!!

Well - sort of! I've renamed my ebay store and generally sort of played around with it to make it more user-friendly etc. The new name? Les Barbes de Chat. There's also a new offer in the store - spend over £10 on cards and stationery and pay no p&p! It's got to be worth a look...
Some more stuff I've made recently:

How time flies!

I really can't believe that the last time I updated my blog was February! What happened to the last 4 months? Anyway, one of the things that happened in the last 4 months is that we finally redecorated our bedroom - we moved to this house nearly 5 years ago and, apart from taking up a very nasty rag (I think at one time it may have been a carpet!) we've done nothing to our bedroom. It had got to the stage where it was being used as a dumping ground for everything we couldn't find a proper home for - I guess lots of you know that feeling, eh? I kindly allowed my husband to do all the donkey work - I chose the colours etc and he did the work - but I did make some wallart.

The letters were made using a technique described by a very talented artist on UKS, Maddy Hill - they're made from foamcore, hand cut then covered, coloured and embellished. Because they're so light, they are simply stuck on the wall with sticky dots. I'm really pleased with the way they turned out. The last picture is not really very good, but in real life it's pretty good - I painted an acrylic painting board in a scrumptious pink metallic acrylic paint. Once that was dry, I used a Heidi Swapp mask - the bird and branch, then masked off 3 equal horizontal stripes. The bottom stripe was painted in the palest colour emulsion we used for the walls, the top one is the dark colour we used, and the centre stripe is a custom mix of the two. It took a while, because of the masking and waiting for bits to dry, but I think it was well worth the wait. I then painted a piece of thin cardboard in a metallic rust colour, and placed the picture on top of it, then added a glass clip frame. To alleviate the huge expanse of plain glass, I used some foam stamps with stazon inks and stamped a frame onto the glass, around the edge of the picture. We are really happy with the final result - not only do we have some personalized art, but it cost a fraction of the price we would have had to pay had we purchased something ready-made.

Love is in the air!

Lots of romantic happenings at the moment - my friend Anna got married yesterday in Plymouth. Apparently it was a fabulous day, everything went to plan, the weather was fab and Anna looked amazing! Lots of love and best wishes to Anna, Phil and the children.
Still on the wedding theme, it appears that another friend is planning to get married in late august/early september - I'm already planning my outfit!
Had a call from a UKS friend this morning - we've only chatted online up til now, but this morning we spoke on the phone - for at least an hour, and we could easily have kept on going...
And, I had a call from the car dealership - everything seems to be on course for me to collect my brand new car on tuesday. This is just sooo exciting, we've never had a new car before and never thought we would. How wonderful was it to be able to choose the colour of my car, instead of having to take what was there. We finally decided on a very grown-up black pearl (they don't do it in pink!). If you are in South Wales and are in the market for a new car, you could do worse than Evans Halshaw, Phoenix Way, Swansea Enterprise Park - we've been dealing with Jenny Price - what a lovely lady, nothing is too much trouble, and she has a wicked sense of humour, too...
We're taking Maddi for her first ever eye-test tomorrow, she's really excited about it, but I'm hoping that she isn't going to need glasses. We'll also be picking up Loaghans new pair. Very cool, kids glasses these days are very funky - not the horrible nhs things I remember from when I was a kid!

Some cards and ATC's

Look what we got today...

Well, you can imagine how delighted we all were when it started to snow this morning! We had a call from the school at about 9:30 to say that the school was closing because of snow. I thought they were joking, because at the time all we had were a few very light snow showers, apparently it had been snowing really hard in Carmarthen, which is where our teacher lives (yes, we do only have 1 teacher!) By lunchtime, we had 4 inches of snow and there was no way any vehicles were getting out of the village, unless they happened to be tractors! The children spent the entire day playing out in the snow, and even I ventured out for a while to get some piccies.

I've also managed some ATC's and some greetings cards, so I'm feeling quite pleased with myself, but as I haven't managed to get my head round organising photos on here, I'll put them in a separate post...

It's snow not fair!!

Okay, first an apology for the terrible pun.
We're all feeling a bit put out as, although we had a little snow last night, it had practically all gone by the time the children got up for school and all we have now is rain! The kids are less than impressed as their school remained open, while over 700 other schools in Wales were closed because of heavy snow. Ah well, there's always tonight....
On a brighter note, I received a new embossing board in the post today and have spent some time playing with it. It's very easy to use and really does give stunning results - so far I've made a dress, 2 romper suits, a handbag and a briefcase - all I need to do now is to embellish them.
Now, I'm not normally a stressy person, but I ended up having a run-in with a seller on ebay - I was considering buying from her and sent an email with a couple of questions as her listing wasn't exactly clear, what I got in return was a very rude and defensive email - it makes me really cross, because most of the people who deal on ebay are honest and helpful, but people like her really do give it a bad name. Needless to say, I shan't be ordering!
Right, I'm off now to embellish some cards...

How time flies!!

I can't believe that the last time I updated was October 16th! So much has happened in the last few months that crafting really has had to take a back seat. My eldest daughter finally gave birth to a beautiful baby boy on December 22nd, following multiple admissions to various hospitals throughout West Wales - I had never realised there were so many hospitals in the area!! She and our gorgeous grandson are both doing well.


My cousin discovered that she was pregnant, and is expecting her baby, a girl, in June. She, along with my favourite aunt, have moved back to South Africa. The family lived there for many years and only returned to the UK about 6 years ago. They will both be seriously missed.
Our eldest son has been diagnosed with CFS and is now on a regime of physiotherapy etc in an attempt to improve his health. We're not having much joy with the LEA, though, so I think they are next on the list to be hassled until they start to do something...

Although things have been somewhat frantic, I have managed a few bits and pieces. The necklace is one I made for a friend who's getting married next wednesday, 14th February. I feel so honoured that she wants to wear something I've made on her special day. I can't wait to see all the photos as, unfortunately, she lives too far away for me to be able to get to the wedding.

I've decided that the next craft I would like to add to my repertoire is that of making glass beads. That will have to wait til later in the year, though - I will need to get together a kit, and the courage, before I start!

I'm off now, but I promise to be back soon...