Tuesday, 16 December 2008

Time to craft

Are you a traditional crafter or one for the modern collections? I like both but ultimately I am for the modern styles. The last few years I've just loved bright fuscia pink for Christmas, and through my magazine work I've been asked to use a few weird and wonderful colour combinations!

This pink card is pretty simple, a stamped image (stamped twice so that the second tree can be cut out and raised, decoupage-style), with a scalloped edge, stitching inside and pink eyelets.

This second card was part of one of those colour combinations - black, green and orange! I love this card. It's black Bazzill card torn for effect, orange thread used to create simple tree shapes and black ink around the outside with a black stamped message. Just a couple of green mini brads in the corners too.

I don't like the fact that now I'm working full time on a regular job again, I don't have time to blog anymore! And more importantly, because of that, I don't have the enthusiasm either. I like to blog and miss it, but now I don't have my days to think about crafts and taking photos as I go along of things, I just seem to forget. Since moving house a couple of years ago, I started the bases of some canvases to put on my bedroom wall. Two years later I got so fed up of looking at blank walls and not having finished them, that i finally brought myself a headboard so brought some canvases to match. Well, you can't wait forever to have the time to create, can you? I'm sure everyone has lots of half-finished projects.

Monday, 1 December 2008

On the first day of Christmas...


As it's the 1st of December, I thought I'd kick start it with inspiration for Christmas cards! This one seemed to be one of my most loved cards last year, although its just so simple. It is a black square card blank made from textured Bazzill card, with thick lime green organza ribbon tied into a present design on the front (make a slit in the spine to thread the ribbon on the left). I made the tag by hand and rounded the corners, and added a Blonde Moments Christmas stamp design in black ink to the centre. Voila! I could make this as my card this year as its so simple, but I have lots of others to use up so I won't.
I had a day of wedding invitation-making on Saturday with my girly friends, it was great fun. Photos are to follow!

Friday, 4 April 2008

Surprising the girls in Sydney...

Finally! I have just taught myself how to compress videos to put onto my blog so... here is the video from when I surprised the girls (Stacey, Katie, Debbie and then Julie) in Sydney. If it stops and starts the first time you watch it while it is loading, play it through a second time and it should run smoothly. If they say buffering, let them do that for a while before you click play again, though it should start again itself.

**If you are at work, you might want to make your volume low for this**

I think this is by far the best secret I've ever kept and surprising them was so much fun, though I was shaking before I even got to them. I had text them all during my 1.5hour changeover in Singapore asking them where they were and what they were doing as I was missing them, my cunning plan to work out where to find them. But not one of them replied!

So after I got out of my shuttle bus, I decided to go and check in at reception, then find my camera to video it and go up to our room, hoping they would be there. This was a long shot as it was 8pm, and I knew Julie had flown in a few hours earlier so I figured they may well be out having a good few drinks and rolling in drunk in the early hours. Luckily for me, it was perfect timing as I walked into the hostel to find this... (you will see in the video in a second)

I jumped back behind a post, didn't bother with reception but dumped my bag to find my camera. I then walked towards them...

It was just the best moment as none of them had any idea I was really joining them. If you can understand a word we say in this video (strong accents and screaming excitement aren't a good mix!) then you can see Stacey had an inkling but didn't really believe I would be flying out. It makes me all emotional every time I watch it!

Then surprising Julie...

You may want to almost mute this one haha

So, the girls had met Julie earlier, been out for dinner and were back already. Julie was upstairs supposedly in bed as her jet lag was kicking in, but as we went up to our floor (I'd secretly re-booked my bed in their dorm without them knowing) we found her on the phone to James so I had to jump back and hide. Poor James, needed to see an ear specialist after this...




It was actually even more fun having two surprises instead of the one and they are both so different. The girls sat there stunned and not saying much, Julie did the complete opposite.

Fun times.

When can I do it again next?

Sunday, 9 December 2007

Honey I'm home!

Back to the real world, a cold and wet Britain haha. The house felt strangely odd, even though now it seems normal again, and driving to church this morning also felt bizarre.

The flight was fine, we all managed to sleep alot which we were pleased about. And for the few hours that I was awake... I made some cards haha! Crafty people - have you heard of Amy Butler? There is a huge buzz around her at the moment for her textile designs and she has bag patterns that alot of crafters are following. Her lines are now creeping into the papercraft market too and I brought some cute card kits in Singapore to keep me occupied on the flight home.

The patterns are really cute aren't they? They were very simple card packs with die-cut panels, rub-ons and pre-patterned card blanks which were perfect to do on a small seat on a plane, not the kind of kit I would usually buy though. I just love the patterns on the card blanks!

So I've unpacked the backpack and stored it safely away (again!) and caught up on alot of washing. Let's see what Monday brings for me! Good luck for the girls that are back to work tomorrow, a harsh strike of reality for you two - boo hoo. Happy week off for you Katie! And lucky travels for you Julie!
xx

Wednesday, 5 December 2007

Wet through

Hi

For fundraising info on Dad, click here

We have left Pauline and Neil's and arrived safely. It was really sad to leave them and I got a bit emotional!

We are staying in the most random place, it looks like a high rise council block from outside, yet the top floor, floor 25, is renovated into about five apartment rooms and it is really nice. Very strange!

It has not stopped pouring with rain all day though so you should not be too jealous of us. Deb and I got lost coming back from the tube station, got totally drenched through and then no cabs would stop for us and noone knew where our place was when we asked! Eventually we got a cabby to stop but it was a bit of a drama. We are supposed to off out tonight to Raffles hotel for a Singapore Sling! If we can make it to find a cab that is...

Singapore Sling!

For fundraising information on Dad, click here. The story for our fundraising made the front cover of the Barking and Dagenham recorder today, although in true newspaper style it is quite bluntly put, but hopefully it will raise awareness for both the drug and our fundraising.

The newspaper story is here

Seems a bit more trivial now, but our update for our last night or two in Singapore...


We had a very eventful evening at the Raffles hotel last night - and quite unexpected! We set off in our best clothes (it says in the guide book they turf you out if you look like rif raf haha) and got a taxi to one of the most famous hotels we know. It was amazing! The hotel was decorated with elaborate Christmas decorations and as we walked into the hotel it had the most amazing Christmas tree - it looked just like the house in the film, Annie.

Deb put on her poshest voice and told the waitor "We are here for a Singapore Sling" which we found hilarious, and they showed us to some seats in their bar. It was lovely. And so were the Singapore Sling drinks which we weren't expecting! So we had more than one haha. We had a lovely evening, chatting and being very civilised, enjoying an evening of luxury - but much more was to follow, little did we know!

When we were ready to leave, like true tourists we took a few photos in the lobby when a guy at the other bar in there asked if we wanted him to take a group one. As we were preparing to leave afterwards the waitor (who is now our mate Gary!) came over and said the gentleman at the bar would like to buy us a drink. After much deliberation (we had our sensible heads on parents of course) we decided why not, as we were in the most expensive hotel in town and we are backpacking! So we were shown to a table and presented with champagne. And not just any old champagne, oh no, but a $580 bottle of Dom Perignon which is about 200 pounds! I am not sure but that might well be the most expensive drink we have ever been brought! Until later...

We were soaking up the luxury and later were introduced to Brett and his boss George, who are regulars at the Raffles hotel when they are in town on business, oh er. And actually, you would expect them to be very cheesy but they were very nice guys from Papua New Guinea. We were also presented with a bowl of strawberries to go with our lovely champagne, who could refuse. The pianist had been playing happy birthday earlier so we decided it would be fun to pretend it was Debbie's birthday today! So that got her a cheeseboard too as she managed to slip into the conversation that she would choose cheese over a birthday cake any day haha.

George had been trying to impress a wine conoisseur at the bar he said and so ordered 'a bottle of their finest' except he didnt realise until later that the finest indeed was the finest, coming inat a total of $12,000 a bottle! He offered Stacey a glass of this red so she drank a glass worth about 800 pounds we worked out haha. How funny!As we were leaving we were told their was a bus booked for us to take us girls on a little sightseeing tour of Singapore and then home, all expenses paid.


We were going to take our own taxi instead but our mate Gary told us the company was very safe and they would get us home safely so as it is paid for we would be fine. So we took a little tour of Singapore, sang a bit of karaoke and rolled up home about 2am in the end. Well we certainly had a great time and it was a highlight of the trip - how great to be spoilt like that.

Today we just looked around the markets and had an easy day after the night before. Tonight we went out for something to eat with a travelling buddy, Pete, who the girls met in New Zealand. That was our last night really except for tomorrow evening when we meet Julie and James for one final meal before they head off on more travels and we leave for home.

We will see you all at the weekend!

What a wonderful world...

That's it - we are all packed and ready to come home! My bag is, er, just a tad heavier than when I left home but hey, that's what shopping in Singapore does for you. We all did different things today - I headed off to a shopping centre that had been recommended to me by a crafting buddy as a couple of great craft shops - and they weren't wrong! The display of one of them was done out like a sweet shop, it was so cute.

We just chilled in a restaurant by the river which was really nice, it did rain alot but hey, what else do we expect! We ended up there for hours as we had til very late that night for our flight, and Pete joined us again.

I've had a great time, and even though my trip has been alot shorter than originally planned, I am so glad I joined the girls and we have crammed so much in, it couldn't have been any more fun! So many highlights - sailing around the Whitsunday Islands, Kroombit cattle station, Surf camp, swimming with dolphins, seeing Pauline and Neil in Perth - the list goes on. And I'm so glad I did it with the girls too as that made it all the more special!

So we are off ready for our 14 hour flight from Singapore home - see you all soon and thanks for all your comments along the way!

Jenny x

Tuesday, 4 December 2007

Fundraising for a good cause

Hi everyone

As many of you will know, my dad is currently having treatment for bowel cancer, and he is coping very well with it so far. There is another drug which he can have to go alongside his chemotherapy which the doctors think will be of benefit, called Avastin, but it will not be funded on the NHS so we are going to raise the money ourselves. The total we need to raise for a full course of the drug is 18,000 pounds.

We have formed a fund to start collecting already although we have not got facilities to donate online just yet (we are trying to set it up now), and we will be doing fundraising over the next few months.

The first event is a sponsored walk that the four grandchildren are doing - this is to be held at Eastbrook End Country Park Millennium Centre in Dagenham, at 2.30pm on Sunday 16th Dec.

If anybody would like to either sponsor the children or donate in general, we would really appreciate any help, large or small, that you can give. For family/close friends who are local to us, you can pledge a sponsor to the children and we can collect it later following the event. Alternatively the fund is being held by our church to make the accountancy side of it simple so you can send a cheque through to us at home made out to "St. Erkenwalds PCC" marked on the back as "Jeff Cocks". Please include a cover note saying if you are a tax payer stating so, along with your full name and address so they the fund can claim back an extra 28% as Gift Aid.

Please email me on jennyscreations@hotmail.com for information and my home address.

If you want to know anything else please feel free to ask away and I realise not everyone will be able to support in terms of donations, but we appreciate your support in all ways. I will be home on Saturday from travelling to get stuck in with all of this alongside my two sisters.

Thanks to everyone for all your support so far with the family too

Jenny x