Sale time!

Head on over to Funky Hand where there is a sale! 10% off absolutely everything - what a bargain :o)

I hope you had a great Christmas - we did chez Joz. We spent it at my in laws house. My sister in law was also there and they bought themselves a Nintendo Wii for Christmas so we all had lots of fun playing that. I am so in love with Mario Kart and we just need a wii in this house! Alas my other half thinks they are rubbish so it won't be happening any time soon :o(

Father Christmas spoiled my girls thoroughly. I think Maddie's favourite present (apart from her doll's pram) was a shopping trolley and till. The girls spend hours playing shop. Abigail got lots of fab stuff too including some new games. Remember Kerplunk?? We spent ages playing that together last night as well as "Ssh don't wake dad" which they both seemed to love. Kerplunk was the favourite though. Maddie didn't quite seem to get the point of it and actually seemed to want to make the marbles drop! Bless her.Christmas eve and all excited leaving treats out for Father Christmas and the reindeer.

Maddie giving Sully a huge hug (Monsters Inc is her very favourite film!)Here they are in their Christmas day pretty dresses!

Boxing day we went to my parents for lunch. They had my Gran staying with them who (bless her) suddenly seems to be looking every one of her 88 years. We had a little outing to the playground near mum's after lunch for the kids to let of steam. My goodness it was cold though!


Well that's my update. It's 11.40 now and we're all still in our PJ's (shock horror!). keith went back to work today and the girls slept in (unheard of!) until 9.45. Bliss! We've had a late breakfast of a bacon sandwich and we're going into town to look for bargains. I also need to head to the Molton Brown shop because whilst at my in laws I took a shower and discovered Molton Brown warming eucalyptus bath and shower gel and now it's all I can think of! I also saw the entire collection of James Herriot books in Borders last week for £14.99 and have been kicking myself for not buying them (I loved them in my youth and would love to read them again) so I'm hoping they have some left today.

I received a package from QVC today which is a Christmas scrapbook kit (not opened it yet). Yippee! I managed to miss craft day last week (didn't have a clue it was on) until 11.45pm. Looked at the 24 hr product review and clocked the kit which sold out as a TSV earlier in the year and I missed out on it. It was free p&p too so I just had to buy it cos I want to scrap the Christmas photos for once. Now I am blaming Kath for this purchase because had I not visited her blog that night I wouldn't have known it was craft day and would never have looked so there Kath it's all your fault! lol

Hippy hoppy happy pappy Christmas!!!

Well tis Christmas eve and excitement is in the air chez Joz...
There I was trying to take a picture of the tree with lots of pressies under it but alas that proved impossible with both of my little tykes leaping into shot every time I took a photo! lol

Popped into town yesterday as I wanted to treat myself to some new PJ's and luck would have it that M&S had 30% off their nightwear so I managed to get some nice ones for a fair bit cheaper! I was still suffering with awful tummy pains yesterday and felt very faint so it wasn't a great visit - add in the Christmas crowds and lets just say I was happy to be home again! I actually feel much better today all pains seem to have gone and a bonus is that I have lost 8lb in 2 days. Unfortunately Maddie is now poorly. She hasn't got runny tummy thank goodness but she is absolutely full of cold. Bless her cotton socks her eyes are all watery and were stuck together with green gunk this morning and she has a really hacking cough :o( Abigail has a cold too but thankfully doesn't seem to be suffering as badly as Mads. Just have to keep dosing her up with meds I guess.

I bought Scrapbook magazine and was chuffed to see one of my layouts in the readers gallery :o)
This might be my last post until after the big day (unless I actually manage to fit in some card making today - still haven't made a card for Keith, my mum & dad or Keith's mum and dad!) and i can't believe how badly organised I am this year! Ah well - I'm looking forward to the mulled wine tonight :o)

Happy Christmas to you all and I hope you have a wonderful time with your loved ones and that Father Christmas is very kind to you!

Pear shaped!

Yep that's how today went. Woke up with very nasty stomach ache this morning and lets just say me and the toilet are very well acquainted now. So coffee got cancelled as did the ironing and any possible crafting.

Ah well there's always tomorrow! Fingers crossed that the girls don't catch my nasty bug or Christmas will be a washout...

Gingerbread!

Well Christmas is fast approaching and my girls are whipping themselves up into a frenzy of excitement! Yesterday we had a little fun assembling a gingerbread house that my mum bought for them. Everything was already made, all I had to do was whip up some icing to use to stick it all together!






They love love loved making this and much time was spent dipping sticky fingers in the icing and pinching smarties :o)

Today my big brother and his wife came a visiting which was lovely especially because it meant I got to have some snuggly cuddles with my 4 month old nephew Benji. Oh my how the girls loved mothering him!


Tomorrow I'm meeting a friend for coffee and gossip (you can never ever have too much coffee or gossip in my opinion!) and in the afternoon I'll be busy with the ironing and may just fit in a teeny weeny bit of craftage I hope. I also want to get lovely fresh crisp bed linen ready to go on the beds on Christmas eve. You can't beat getting in to a lovely clean bed - one of the best feelings in the world if you ask me!

I can hardly believe it but all the presents are wrapped! Last night Keith and I sat on the living room floor and wrapped as though our lives depended on it. It will be the first year in a long time that I'm not wrapping presents on Christmas eve. I shall be supping mulled wine instead and delicately quoffing chocolates I hope whilst snuggled on the sofa with Keith and Charlie puss (still no Georgie).

DCM - traditional silver and gold

Well it's the last dare before Christmas! Wowsers hasn't it come round fast? This week it's another team dare and it is traditional silver and gold. I went for the double dare which is to use both colours on a non Christmas card :o)

I made this card yesterday and to say I'm only a few days post op with my hand it was surprisingly easy. I guess that's because it is my left hand this time and as I'm right handed I do most of my crafty gubbins with my right hand.














































Stamp - Sugar Nellie - Choose (Leanne Ellis design) coloured with watercolour paints
Paper - Basic Grey
Adhesive ribbon - freebie with Papercraft Inspirations
Sentiment - Studio g
Butterfly & pink pearls - from a Lets Make Cards kit (I have some cards in this issue and these were left over from the kit that they sent me)
Glitter glue - Stickles - frosted lace

No I'm not dead......

Been a bit quiet on the blogging front of late. Life gets in the way sometimes doesn't it?

Anyhow between my last post and now I turned 36 (on Sunday)! Yikes - don't the years just whizz by? We had a really lovely family day it was fab. We went to Manchester to the Lowry and mooched around the gallery. We also saw Madagascar 2 which was great but I still prefer the first one :o) On the way home we went to the pizza hut for tea so I was quite spoilt eh? My hubby got me one of these for my birthday/Christmas pressie.




How lucky am I? Sadly the bloody thing won't connect to the wireless internet so I'm waiting in today for the replacement which will hopefully work!

Tuesday saw me having my left hand carpal tunnel release surgery so I have a big boxing glove bandage on my left hand now. It's going to make wrapping the Christmas presents interesting! lol I was meant to have everything wrapped by Monday night but all the presents still haven't arrived, in fact I ordered some last minute ones last night. I hope it all comes before Christmas or I'll be in big bother!

Anyhow, I wanted to show you the beautiful handmade cards I got on my birthday. I'm not ashamed to tell you I shed a tear or 2 opening these....

















Thanks ladies - you made my birthday very special indeed :o)

Mr blogger is playing silly beggars and I can't get the names in the right place or get rid of the spaces between cards! Grrr Top to bottom the cards are from Allison, Carol, Kath, Ruth, Chris, Lythan.

Christmas cake

I've never made a Christmas cake. I don't know why really because I love baking. Anyhow my mum made a Christmas cake for us at the same time as making her own (thanks mum!) so I've just very quickly decorated it. I was just going to put stars on it but got carried away and ended up with a little icy pond and snowman too.

DCM - 10 minute Christmas

The chellenge this week is to make a quick Christmas card. As I am mojoless at the moment this was perfect for me and I was able to whip up this wuickie in no time at all!










































Cuttlebug embossing folder and snowflake die
Ribbon and brad from stash
Paper - Imaginisce Snowy Jo
Sentiment - Sugar Nellie

Time for a TOOT TOOT!!!

I meant to post this toot yesterday but with the way the day ended up I forgot!

My fabbety fab mate Kath has only gone and won Simply Cards and Papercraft cardmaker of the year!!! She has won over £2000 of crafty stuff and a place on the design team too :o)

TOOT TOOT KATH!!!

I am so thrilled for Kath and it is so well deserved because she truly is fab. I've never seen a card of hers that I haven't adored. She is extraordinarily talented. Sooo make sure you buy the mag so you can have a butchers. I curled up in bed last night with my copy :o) If you haven't already checked out her blog do so now you won't regret it! You'll find it here.

Teeny weeny bit of crafting...

Well what a day I've had today! Went to the docs for my asthma check this morning. The sole purpose of this outing was that they won't prescribe new inhalers unless you go for a check and I've been using an out of date almost empty one for too long. I took little Maddie with me and happened to mention I'd had a letter to say she was due her pre school booster injections and I thought it seemed early (Abigail was almost 5 when she had hers). I'm told they've brought it forward for a host of reasons but the main one is that immunity to the hib component wears off early. So says the nurse - shall I do them while you're here?

Eek! Cue lots of tears and crying. Bless Maddie - she wasn't too bad for the first one but knew what was coming for the second. I hate seeing my baby cry :o(




















Here is a happier picture of her in party clobber for the playgroup Christmas party, complete with shoes on wrong feet!

After docs we mooched around town for a bit and picked up a couple of Christmas pressies (still have far too much left to buy though!), then it was home to clean the bathroom - joy! After school Abigail had a friend round for tea and I went to the dentist. Have I ever told you how fearful I am of the dentist? No? Well lets just say I am a big baby and get very scared. Now I knew I had an abscess as it has been playing up big time for the 3 years I have been without a dentist (thank goodness I have an NHS one now!), anyhow, she had the x-rays from last time and it turns out I have 2 abscesses! Side by side. No wonder I've had all the pain and swelling then.....

Nice dentist lady asked me what I want to do....Hah! I don't want to tell her what to do I just want her to sort it out for me. Anyhow I said lets take one tooth out and save the other. Soooo she started root canal work on tooth to be saved. In the nick of time it seems as when she opened up the tooth it was full of pus (gag). Temporary filling is now in and back next week for a 45 min appointment for proper filling. I also need a separate one for the extraction. Anyhow I am having all this work done for the grand total of 44 quids! Bearing in mind my private dentist wanted me to pay him almost £2000 to do root canal work and a couple of crowns I am skipping with joy!

Seem to be waffling a little I'm sorry! Hehe

Anyhow I thought I would post some Christmas cards that I made this week for my Funky Hand DT mates. They all feature Jozza the sheep drawn by moi hehe and a computer generated Baa humbug. Papers are all Imaginisce Snowy Jo and there are some Poppicrafts flowers, glitter die cuts that were free with a magazine and Craftwork Cards circle sentiments. I'm hoping the cards will get to their destinations by tomorrow so thought I'd post them on here now just to show something after my very dry spell.

Still no news

And still no mojo.

Have put the Christmas tree up this afternoon. The girls absolutely loved the whole process. I always put a Christmas CD on and we all sing away as we decorate the tree together. My mum is such a perfectionist (I am too actually!) that she would never let me or my brothers help decorate the tree when we were little but we all do it together in this house even though I do end up doing a tiny bit of rearranging when the kids aren't looking. The tree now looks fab all festooned in red and gold :o)

Popped to The Range earlier as my parents came over. I can hardly believe I am going to say this but I didn't buy ay craft stash! Shock horror!!! I did buy some antlers and a flashing red nose for the girls though. I like to put a pic of them in with the Christmas cards to immediate family. The light isn't great though so had to use the flash and also the Christmas tree lights aren't on yet (there are so many things plugged in in our house that I have no idea which plug belongs to what so Keith can do that tonight when he gets in :o)

Here are a couple of my faves
























It would appear that both girls have inherited the "mad" gene.





I really hope to be back soon with some craft. I have made a start on some Christmas cards for my fellow Funky Hand DT mates but it kind of came to a standstill. They are all going to be the same design and I need to get my finger out. I've just had a look at the new Penny Black Saturday challenge and it's a sketch this week so I want to have a go at that and see if I can lure my mojo back to the fold. Perhaps I should leave some wine out for it?

I'd like to say thanks for the lovely comments left on here and apologise for my lack of blog commenting. I've really let it go these last few weeks what with my missing cat and missing mojo but I'll get back to it!

Thank you

Just a quick post to say thank you for leaving kind messages for me. Georgie is still not home - it's like she's vanished into thin air.

I feel very low. My husband is working away for a couple of nights this week so it's just me and the girls at home. It was celebration afternoon at Abbi's school this afternoon where parents get to see all the work that they have been doing. Abbi loved showing me everything and it was great to see it. I can't believe my baby is 7 already and so grown up! When we came home we made a couple of decorations for the Christmas tree which will be going up at the weekend. That is as crafty as it's got. Mojo is still missing in action!

Here are a few photos....the first is the tree ornaments - the idea came from a youtube video here. There is also a pic of a card I made for Allison from the Funky Hand DT. Other photos are from Sunday when we fed the ducks at the local lake and Monday morning when we had snow (albeit briefly).

And still nothing......

No sign of Georgie. Nothing......

We've just had a walk around the neighbourhood and Keith (my hub) got me thinking. There was an old man who lived round 2 corners from us (in fact it was his shed that Charlie got locked in years ago) and Keith thinks this man may now have died as last week he saw some people clearing the house out. Now obviously we've had Georgie at home after he saw the people but what if they came back this week and she happened to sneak in the house when they weren't looking? I know I'm clutching at straws here but as there has literally been no sign of her at all it does make me wonder. We've had absolutely no feedback from the posters :o(
When we got to the house. Keith actually whistled through the letterbox but heard nothing. The blinds are all shut at the windows so you can't actually see in.

Where is she???????

SIgh......

I'm feeling pants! Pants pants pants!!!!

Still no sign of Georgie! I have been around the neighbourhood sticking posters to lamposts and also got the local newsagent to stick one in their window. Am psyching myself up to ring the RSPCA to find out if she's been injured and taken in there....

Poor Georgie. I really hope she is ok. Her brother couldn't give 2 hoots that she is missing. In fact he has eaten her tea for the last 2 nights running :o( They are chalk and cheese even though they are brother and sister and we got them at the same time. We got them from the cats protextion league when they were about 4 months old. They were rescued from a house which was filled to the brim with dogs and cats who were walking around knee deep in faeces and urine. Georgie (being mainly white) had yellowy brown paws for weeks after we brought her home bless her. They both settled in with us nicely, but when Abbi was born 7 yrs ago they both semi moved out during the day. Charlie came round but Georgie remained very nervous and has progressed to an almost outdoor cat who comes for food and warmth of a night as opposed to Charlie who would stay permanently indoors on a warm lap if possible! I'm feeling so guilty right now as she so obviously was never the right temperement to be around children and so should we have maybe tried to rehome her with an older family? She's a different cat on a night when the kids are in bed. She's such a softie an loves having her fluffy white tummy rubbed. I just want her to come home safe and sound I guess :o(

DCM - we're dreaming of a white Christmas...and...

This week the fabby Jane sets the dare!

"All too quickly, and its Friday once again....and this week...we are dreaming of a WHITE (and splash of pink Christmas!) I would love you to design a card which includes white mostly (ie: snow, snowmen etc ) and also a little splash of pink somewhere on the card. :)"

Here is my effort which you wouldn't believe how long it took to make because my mojo is still nowhere to be seen - and now one of my pussy cats is missing :o( Need to get some posters put up of her today and go looking for her again. Really hope she's ok - this is not like her.


Cuttlebug embossing set - just my type
Cuttlebug die - 3x3 combo treetops
Papers - Funky Hand - Funky Little Christmas
Joy letters - American Crafts thickers (from QVC and they took 8 yes 8 days to arrive from being dispatched!!! How can it take so long?????)
Felt flower from my box of stash and metal snowflake that I had forgotten I even had!

Birthday cards

There have been some Funky Hand birthdays the last few days, in fact it is Allison's today!!

Happy birthday Allison!!!

Soooo I can now post up some pics of the cards I made for Enfys and Anice. I can't put Allison's up yet as I'm not sure she has it yet and to be honest it was made the other night and we all know my mojo has gone missing so the card is not one of my finest :o( Still no sign of Mr mojo - I think he's moved in with one of his other women! The man tart!



This is the card I made for Enfys which turned out to be quite appropriate as she has had some pigs on the loose in her neighbourhood in the US!
Stamp - Sugar Nellie (watercoloured)
Paper - Basic Grey
Ribbon from stash
Sentiment - handwritten (and can't you tell! lol)






















This is Anice's card. I went bright and colourful with this one. It was special birthday as Anice turned 40!
Stamp - Sugar Nellie (watercoloured)
Glitter card - Doodlebug
Patterned paper (can't remember - will check later)
Sentiment stamp - Penny Black
Flowers - Doodlebug, Prima and Poppicrafts
Button, ribbon & brads - stash
Glitterglue
Doodling
Doodlebug rub ons

Funky Daze

Hmmm still no sign of mojo. He really has gone on a bender this time!

Now then, today is Anice from Funky Hand's birthday! Happy Birthday Anice!!!!

To celebrate she has released her new CD "Funky Daze" and it's a belter! Not only is it chock full of fab papers, she also had the amazing brainwave to do word books. These are word books with a difference though as you are not tied to set words - you can make any you like as the whole alphabet is in there! It can be in either boy or girl colours too. I made one a while ago of my nephew Ben which you can see further down this post :o)

Below is a selection of cards (plus a scrapbook page of one of my cats) that I've made over the last few months. All papers are from the Funky Daze CD (including the scrapbook page) and the various embellies are from my stash :o)

Oh no!!

Oh no - oh no Jo - no mojo Jo!

Yep indeedy do! My mojo has indeed upped and left and it feels like it may be poimernant (said just like Rocky's trainer, Mick - how I loved the Rocky films back in the day!)

That's all I've got to say really. No mojo - no cards! Why the picture of beaker? 'Cos I can do a mean beaker face that's why (as can my hubby - perhaps that is what brought us together?).

I tell you what though......I am REELING from the shock allegations in the news re the delicious Gordon Ramsay!!! As someone commented on one of the news websites (I forget which one) "it feels like finding out that Santa isn't real". Shucks I had him down as such a family man. I really hope it ain't true wot them pesky papers are saying :o(

It's been a rubbish weekend - have had a nasty pasty cold with a streaming nose. I now look like rudolph! The highlight of the entire weekend was making an air raid shelter model with Abbi complete with ickle tiny beds and an ickle table and chairs with the teeniest tiny plate with teeny tiny card bread on it. They are doing world war 2 at school. Seems a little young to be learning about it if you ask me - she's only 7. They are obviously learning a very watered down version which makes me think - what's the point?? Why not wait til the kids are old enough to understand and digest the information? But hey ho - that's just me. Anyhow Abs is thrilled with her little air raid shelter and can't wait to take it in for "show and tell" but she wants to add some painty bits first!

That's all the news and gossip from chez Joz. I'd appreciate it if anyone comes across my mojo could they try and capture it? If not just drop me a line and tell me where you saw it....it can be a bit saucy my mojo - last time it escaped it went to a seedy strip joint! Tsk!