My little Angel....

We are lucky enough to have 2 lovely little girls and many of you will know we have not had an easy ride.
Adoption is a long and complex process and we have to deal with a lot of things that we are not really qualified for, but, for the last 4 years I think we have managed really well.
This Lady C , I love her little sweet face, I often stare at her to try to understand how she feels as she is so very troubled, I try hard to help her but there are so many things I don't understand, how could I after all? who can really appreciate what she has been through? apart from her and her sister..
I do get stressed and frustrated and sometimes embarrassed as she is a bit like a box of chocolates....you never know what you are going to get...how she will behave , whats she will do or say next.

Christmas time is 'different' for us, children who have had very little find it hard to cope with it. So when I asked 'Lady C' what she would like for Christmas she only wanted 1 thing.......her tooth...we have waited and waited for months and months and months for it, she didn't want anything else.

Can you imagine the joy on her face when she woke up on Christmas morning with her missing tooth popping through, a little tear rolled down my cheek...her wish came true..
Bless her

Nice picture for my new diet.....

I LOVE to learn anything new, anything crafty , it keeps me sane, its tough being a Mum sometimes and of course with my 2 lovely girls being a little more hard work than most in some ways, its a challenge to my nerves...so.....I craft, sew, even just LOOK at my crafty stash and for an extra treat I take a class or got to an exhibition.

I recently went to the Knitting and Stitching show with my 'crafty Mate Chris' (that's her full name now....) We went at daybreak expecting a horrid journey from Wilmslow to Harrogate but it was great, we were an hour early so we stopped off for a treat.
I have ALWAYS wanted to got to Betty's Tea Shop and have always moaned at my mate Dyan (from Art from The Heart) as she lives in Harrogate and when I have stayed we have never made it there, but that has now changed because here I am in Betty's Tea Shop!!!....


Not my fav picture, a few too many chins but maybe it will help with my New Years Diet. What a lovely traditional quaint tea shop, sadly as it was breakfast I didn't fancy a cake or a cheesy croissant that early in the morning so it was just a nice cuppa for me!

I loved this exhibition, we did a couple of classes and were like excited little girls running around stroking fabric and gazing at buttons....but around the exhibition there were windows to the outside world showing the start of a little shower of snow which got heavier and heavier so we made a decision to leave early, we found a lovely couple of ladies to give our last class tickets to and set off home. the journey is 2 1/2 hours on a normal day but becuase of the thick snow and ice it took 6 1/2 hours.....so tired and so stressed but as I had a nice crafty FIX I soon got over it..

I will post a pic of my Freebie Blog Candy ASAP

Anyone for another freebie????

As promised I am giving away some blog candy every month, it wont get to you before christmas but maybe something nice for the new year?

I will be one of my bags, not sure what colour yet, I have a fair in a new old folks home on Monday so need to see what sell there first.

I will post a picture soon

Merry Christmas!!

Its been a while...

So sorry I have been sewing away making orders and getting ready for 3 fairs this week...yes 3!! I'm so tired....1 wore to go, I need to sew ALL day tomorrow, I had to order some more of the webbing for the straps which only came today, so am early night and early rise for me.
Anyway, remember my blog candy?
How lovely is this post!
This is the winner of my blog candy, the lovely Helga in Germany. It took a long time to get there but at last it arrived, I am so please it went to such a lovely lady and I love the way she showed this on her blog.
copy and paste this link into your browser....hope it works.
http://www.stempelkunst.info">

Thought you may like to see my crazy dog Nix...she needed somewhere comfy to relax and chose the cat litter tray....

And the Winner is..........

I am bit overwelmed by all the messages, cant believe all the lovely comments about my bags.

I LOVE to make them, I LOVE to sew to be honest, my room (in the garage) is sooooo colD at the moment but I plan to spend all day in there tomorrow sorting/clearing out.
I am starting some kids sewing classes soon so need to get organised.I have been a litle obsessed with my Stampin Up venture, I LOVE doing workshops and LOVE the fact I can make an 'emergency' card in a few mins with all my scrummy supplies.

Anyway

I have decided to do a givaway every month as a thank you for reading my blog. My little girl lady K (most know why I cant publish their names..) has drawn out 1 mane for the black spotty bag......

HELGA from Germany is this months winner, I will contact you directly , I hope you like it !

How can you buy one of my bags?
visit Spots and Co!!
See below for my new shop.

www.spotsandco.blogspot.com

keep looking more and more being added my sewing machine is getting hot!

Blog candy picture!

This is the bag I am giving away as a thank you for ready my blog!! Its the medium size with short handles with an oil cloth outer but it is fully reversible so if you take it to on holiday or to the pool you can turn it through and Voila water resistant inner!

Hope you like it, its my fav colour combination.
x

Another Freebie Spotty Bag!

I have decided to give away another spotty bag, I will put a picture on my blog tomorrow of the colour...not decided yet, need to have a look what I have ready sewn!
Leave a comment if you would like to be pu in the draw!

More fabby projects and Gordon Ramsay??

what is this?




last week I was so lucky to go to a Gordon Ramsay Gala dinner up in Scotland, I am not really used to occasions like this so I ordered lots of new outfits to try because I wanted to feel 'nice'! I actually ended up wearing a jacket I wore on my hen night 10 years ago....never mind.

The picture above is the middle course sorbet, it was like a work of art,,,the outside was edible pearl coloured in the shape of a peach, even the leaf was edible, when it was lightly tapped it shattered revealing the sorbet...yummmm......the whole meal was amazing, I even met the man himself!



Another little project to share from our fab training day, this is from a level 2 hostess set and the gorg designer papers.....love it!

horah! found a use for my 'slimming world' book.........it was a big one! found in Lady 'C's bed.....

More from the Quarterly Training day!

Here are a couple more samples from the quarterly training in Bicester, my favourite is this bookmark....lush!!!! love the 2 colour stamping...

Also ove the use of this littl stamp from 'Artistic Etching' how amazing is this! in fact love everything about this design too...
Get your fabby Stampin Up supplies from me! email me with your requirements and guess what???? you can now pay with your credit card...tempted?

Inspiration Project

Hope you like my inspiration project, I did this at the SU training at Bicester, I haven't done one of these before doing a demo to a lot of demo's is nerve racking especially when things go a little pear shaped!! I did if 4 times 3 were fine and the last one I had to do again.....but it went well in the end. I will being a Video tutorial on this soon.

I thought I would include a close up? is this metal??...ahhha!!!! wait and see xx

I am off to Scotland in the morning to a special evening with Gordon Ramsey, all expenses paid 5 star hotel, fabby food and entertainment , some time with hubby and a little respite from the kids!! Hope to get some pics....I am sooooo lucky x

Bicester Stampin'up! Training Day

We had a great trip to Bicester on Sunday for our Stampin'up training day, Michelle organised a fab day on her own for 30 people..bless. I took with me, 3 'crafty' friends ,Kirsty, Chris and Claudia. We had a very early start we left at 6.30am and poor Claudia had an hour drive before that!
We all had to squash ourselves into a little Audi because my big bus (people carrier) wasn't too well so I didn't want to risk it.
The day started well with Claudia running our wheelie bin over.......hope her car is ok, I was more worried about the gorg flowers she has on the side of her Beetle hope they didnt get scratched..how cool is that.
After a few wee breaks we arrived , I did a little demo together with 3 other demonstrators, to be honest Ive always been a bit nervous of these things but I loved it, even when I had a little hiccup...sometimes its good to make mistakes so you wont do them again (I kept telling myself this..).

We crafted and crafted then had to most amazing raffle, I won 3 times and it was all amazing things from the new catalogue......scrummy... I will post a load of pics shortly , I wanted to show you a few samples I saw on the day, will post some more tomorrow..

by the way,one of the many highlights on the day was when Kirtsy smacked the bum with her ruler of someone who she thought was me bending down only to find it was someone she had never seen before, we laughed so much, I had tears streaming down my face.....I was a bit worried Kirsty was going to pass out!

Kirsty took some fabby pics, I hope to get them from her soon and share them with you.
Belly laughs and crafting with friends ...what a perfect day xxx

I dont want to be French I need to be France!

This is my sweet little Lady 'C' she has more going on in the little head of hers than most of us have in a lifetime......I love her to bits, good and bad...
It was 8am and she said she had to go to school as 'France' so sorry for the very rough sewing I ran to the sewing room and made her a nice red beret, she put it on and loved it , I had already made a sample of a little 'kind of' French maids pinny so she put that on as well.

Ohhhh, I said you look so French! to which she replied, MUM!!! I need to be France not French!!

Bless her little cotton socks
She is on a new program at school and for a whole week she has been amazing so tonight we are going out, just the two of us. Lady 'K' is on a sleepover, and of course Dad will be in the Pub (its law on a Friday..girls night in so Dad HAS to go out..)

OK I'm off to do some sorting in the new SU room....while watching for my SU delivery of course!

Getting there.......

Well after the disaster of my shelves collapsing in my new stamping room/office, I think it may have been for the best....at least it was only me hurt, if they had fallen on my mum (they were over the guest bed) it would have been terrible she is 81 and although she doesn't look it or act it she can be fragile.
Her are some of the pics of the work in progress, lots more to follow


you cant beat Ikea can you!






the problem I have is that there are some new punches on the way......

here is a tip!! never ever choose white for your walls and never believe a tin of paint call 'one coat' its doesn't do what it ways on the tin....if it said four coat then that's more like it...

Swaps for Manchester Training

Hope you like my little swaps for the Manchester training, I LOVE my crimper and like the effect of stamping first then crimping,the Artistic Etching stamp set is fab, there are so many ways of using it...


Here is my little manequin, I bought a few of these from a closing down sale and decided to alter it, I used one of the stamp from the Vintage Vogue stamp set and Whisper white and early espresso cardstock. I made the flower using the Boho Blosson punch and just HAD to use a basic Pearl int he centre. I decided to use the Art By Design stamp set to make the little woven label on the side.
The leaf is made using the 2 step bird punch...fab isnt it?



I really hope you like it, any of the materials can be purchased from me, just click on the catalogue link, choose your stash, add £5.95 postage (for ANY size of order) , e-mail me and I will have it sent to your door!

And I lived to tell the tale..

Its been a long haul.....trying to get organized but tonight in my lovely new office/Stampin up room I was nearly there...

I was just sorting my books in height order...like you do...

then

This

I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry...I had even sorted out the spaghetti mix if 4 boxes of leads and chargers!!

looking at the picture it doesn't show the devastation on the floor...trust me you cant see the floor it even took out the TV.

my mum sleeps here when she comes over and shes 81 so I have to count my blessings.

x

Swap time

This is my task for tonight after I have finished my workshop for tomorrow.40 swaps for my training evening on Friday, a room full of like minded crafters super duper....
I do love this new stamp set, I think I will go on and on with it has soooo many possibilities.

See Below my unfinished swaps are a couple of pics of the projects I designed for my fabby workshop last week, I taught 30 people!they were all so nice and I think they all enjoyed it.
I love stampin up stuff, you don't have to be an expert crafter , all the products are so easy to use and easy to put together to make a fabby design!

New tutorial

I have been to the Manchester Stitch and creative craft show at Manchester Central today....
The kids are back at school, I have been surrounded by stress so as I don't have a car I popped on the train...super....popped on the free shuttle bus....super... ready for a creative boost..
It was the worst show, half empty so bad I went round in 15 mins and left!
There was one nice stand I know the lady think its Dolly Cottage crafts but to be honest I didn't need any card and stampy stuff because of Su
I wanted inspiration and all I got was perspiration......
I did buy a load of cheep scissors for all my workshops from the 'every things a pound' stand (she says hopeful about Stamp Up workshops!)

I am designing my new office in the hope it will bring me a more business as I will be super duper organised....
I am still painting I think I have the spray from the white roller on my eyeballs today, but I HAVE to finish it.
Every time I paint I see another thing that needs doing, the cornice was a bit grubby, shall I paint it?? nah......well actually I now HAVE to paint it because 3 walls are white and as you know white makes old white look dirty and grey so on with the ceiling, cornice wall...ect ect etc

The Tutorial
I have been sewing FOR EVER and seem to have left this passion for a long long time, I trained for 4 years at Hollins on Manchester so should really use it alongside my papercraft obsession.
OK
I can make roman blinds but just haven't got the time so...wait for it....I am going to COVER one!!
I will take pics as I go along to show you how i can be done..hopefully..

This will mean you can buy any roman from Ikea or anywhere Dunelm etc and use your own fabric

YOU MUCH FOLLOW THE FIRST IMPORTANT STEP
using making tape attach the blind to the window with a piece of the new fabric you want to use over the top to make sure you cant see through to the blind underneath

Watch this space for pics..

Thanks everyone!

Thanks so much for all the orders, I will get started this weekend.

I have had a good week and bad , I installed an Interior Design Job that has been delayed because the fabric was stuck in customs but on Thurs night we installed. I take my Interior Design very seriously and always feel it need to be 'just right' well It was fab, lots of silk, Designers Guild fabrics, a buffet of Pink and green and choc...ooooooooooooooooow lovely, felt really proud.

My lovely Harvey (8 yr old Cocker) is not well, he is my little boy my substitute baby , he has been poorly before but think its come back...he can walk but cant walk up of down the stairs he just cries....its breaking my heart, keep thinking he will get better but think we need to go and throw money at the Vet tomorrow (they really should have soooo much money) it costs £50 to walk through the door, the last time it was £500 and the Insurance only paid out £300...
Anyway, my boy is sooo special I would sell ANYTHING if I needed money to make him better... I will keep you posted.

After hubbys car setting on fire and the engine blowing up after Lady K dropping my Blackberry in the bath and hubby standing on his Iphone its been a very expensive month....dont call me unlucky..

Hubby went out tonight, he was drinking Champagne and eating tapas...I am at home with the kids 2 dogs (1 poorly) and a mad kitten so I treated myself to some scrummy but health food. I was unloading the car in my bare feet dropped the flaked poached salmon on the drive, stood on it (remember I have bare feet) it squished through my toes-great, so I put the squwished salmon in a dish for the kitten and was left with nothing.Hubby arrived at 1am with a lovely hunter warrior style kebab which I caught him feeding the kitten, not his best move, he loves to tell me how much he loves me (a good indication of just how drunk he is..) then passes out on the sofa, tonight he even threatened to put the heating on! this was a shock because he is like the bloke from the royal family, if he goes out the fire goes off...no worries about me still sitting here!
Its 2.13am and he lasted about 11Min's before he passed out after putting our marathon episodes of come dine with me on, I'm not sure if Harvey or Stuart is snoring the loudest. Its not chucking it down outside so I'm off to bed, shall I wake him?

BAGS FOR SALE!

Hi there,
My spotty bag range is growing, I have had such a good year and decided to let people choose their own cols and lining.
I do have a few bags in stock and wondered of anyone would like to buy one, they re £29 each and the purse is £5 the postage is only £3.50. I can make other colours but I have these available to go!!
My lovely Friend Marieke and her gorg daughter agreed to do a bit of modelling for me I have put the inside views of the bags in the gallery.
Here is the pale blue

My fave black

Scrummy plum


pale pink


You can pay with a credit card securely with the PAYPAL (you don't need a paypal account)button on the left side at the top of the blog, e-mail me first to check availability or if you want something a bit different just ask!!

More pictures will be added to my gallery soon.