Merry Christmas Everyone!

I hope your Christmas is filled with lots of love and laughter and every kind of happiness and that you are able to spend it with the ones you love...xxxx

Warmest wishes and Sprout tasting kisses..xxxx Anita..xxxx

better late than never!

or so the saying goes! this month on Scrapology we were extremely lucky to have chance to lift a beautiful page from the majorly talented Wendy McKee.

this was the page that Wendy designed

and this is my page. There is still time for you to join in on this months challenge and once again there is a fab prize which has been very kindly donated by Jill at Cardinal Colours, thank you so much jill once again for you generosity..xxx

OMG!!! How I blushed!!!!

OK, picture the scene.....
i come home after doing some shopping to find the postie has been...popped some letters through my door and a card to say he had a parcel, but it wouldn;t fit through the letter box so could i go and collect it after leaving a 4 hour gap. So I sat there wondering what it was.....what can it be and WHO has sent it?
I know I am not expecting anything and haven't ordered anything.
So.......I wait.....and I wait......and then, 4 hours later I arrive at our local parcel depot and I go inside to be greeted by a rather dashing young postie....so i give him my card and he disappears behind a wall for a few moments.

Then he returns....with a HUUUUUGE grin on his face....and he winks at me.....and i blush a little.....and that is when he said the words that will forever be etched in my mind.......

are you Anita 'SUPER SPROUT EATER' MacDonald?..........

With a blush as bright as the autumn sunset i muttered the words....'yes, that would be me'
( i think it actually came out as a strangled squeak!!!) and I grabbed the parcel most graciously and made a hasty exit!

I just KNEW as soon as he said those few words just WHERE the parcel was from.....and Missy....if you are reading this you will now know that you will forever more need to sleep with one eye open ;).....because revenge is a dish best served cold.....unlike sprouts! Having said that I am sure they are nice cold, dipped in chocolate and rolled in cocoa powder to make truffles........

The gauntlet is thrown down......mwahahahahahahaaaaaaa! I shall endeavour to make it my life's work to get you back he!he!he!( in the nicest possible way of course..xxx) and thank you very much for the parcel....its sitting nestled under our tree and will be carefully opened on Christmas morning....just incase it's booby trapped!

in the meantime feast your eyes on these.....how i wish we were having these at the dinner table on Christmas day....what fun!

Incase any of you were wondering....I just ADORE sprouts.....alas my hubby and girls detest them :( and I am not allowed to cook them along with our other veg.......so in the freezer I have sat a lovely microwavable bowl of them.....thats supposed to be enough for 2 to 3 to share.....well it would be rude to leave any or throw them away wouldn't it? So think of me on Christmas day when I am sitting enjoying my delicious little green friends....and I hope you will all be enjoying yours too!

But watch out on Boxing Day!

Warmest wishes Anita..xxxxx

Happy 40th Sue!

Wishing my very bestest friend, Sue, a brilliant 40th birthday!

Thanks for spending the day with me yesterday Hun, hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! And I look forward to spending some of today together too!



..........now where is that zimmer frame.....he!he!he!
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Guess who is ONE!!!!!!!

Where HAS the last year gone? It's flown by so very fast. This gorgeous little man was ONE on Saturday! It really doesn't seem that long ago that I had the pleasure of cuddling him for the first time.......he is just soooooooooo delightful, he really is!

Anyway, on Saturday he was One Year Old and as we couldn't make it to see him then we popped round yesterday for a belated celebration.

He is such a handsome little fella isn't he?

It is a family tradition that when our little ones celebrate their first birthday we give them a small chocolate gateau for the birthday cake...... so here it is Josh.....ENJOY! He was a little wary of it to start with.....but soon got stuck in!

He is SUCH a sweetheart and is happy to share bless him. Who could resist a bit of cake when its served so lovingly LOL.

Hang on Mum! I have got a little bot of chocolate on the back of my hand I think.....hang on! I will get it ;)

Cake???? Wot cake????? I haven't seen anything....and nobody can prove anything either ;)

He!He!He! Glad you find me entertaining ;)

Let's ALL worship the God Of Chocolate
....Raise your hands with me!!!!!!! he!he!he!

Happy First Birthday Little Man, you are such a treasure and I am so delighted to be your Aunti....xxxxxx

Love and cuddles from Aunti Neek....xxxxxx

p.s. I think I can feel a layout coming on from this!

Hooray......

I am back online! Blinking laptops with evil motherboards!!!! Oh well, all is well and I feel like I have my life back now LOL. Gosh I have missed my daily dose of catching up with all your blogs and keeping in contact with my friends :(. Anyway, I am back now and will hopefully gradually catch back up again over the next week or so. just off to make a bacon butty, be back later sometime.

Warmest wishes Anita..xxxx

Beautiful Beads.....

Hello there, hope you are feeling a bit warmer than I am here today?
Do you still need stocking fillers at all or have you finished your chrimbo shopping? I have these beaded goodies for sale, maybe there will be something that takes your eye. Give me a shout if there is anything you would like (or if you have any questions) and i can pop them in the post to you asap. prices include P & P...thanks for looking....hope you likey :)....xxxxx

Several items now sold and photos removed, THANK YOU ladies

bottom 2 charms on right SOLD thank you

Pink and Teal Angel SOLD thank you

Every Smile Has A Story To Tell.

Hello there. I seem to have got a big bogged down with things for a few days, so apologies for not getting round to your blogs and keeping up with your news. I will try and catch up at some point this week. Its such a manic time of year for everyone isn't it.....and I guess its just going to get busier over the next few weeks LOL!
Have you got any snow yet? We have had a flurry here in Hailsham, but nothing much,yet literally just a stones throw away there is plenty! The girls are so jealous and just keep wishing for it here ( I have 2 classes to teach later this week so don't really want any yet thank you!)

Anyway, here is a layout I thought I would share. Its been made using Bo Bunny papers from the Mama Razzi range. I just LOVE working with Bo Bunny, such wonderful quality, superb colours and designs.
The photo is of Dale and Chloe, taken on a trip out over our Devon holiday back in the summer ( gorgeous part of the country, so beautiful....and we definately want to go back again!)


Quite a lot of distressing on this page and sewing with satin ribbon. I really like the word strips on one of the sheets of paper from the range, plenty of different sayings to work with, being double sided there was lots of choice.

Right, its 4.40am and I am running late for work. I *promise* I will catch up with your blogs as soon as I can, have a lovely day and mind out for slippery paths and roads.

Warmest wishes Anita..xxxx

Websters Pages and Wooly Ruffles...

hello there :)
I hope you are having a lovely weekend so far( even though the weather is pretty pants!) I have been busy making a good start on 18 flannel reindeer that I am making for my Nephew and Neice's school Christmas Fair...they are filled with yummy chocs....just got to finish putting bells onto their antlers and they will be done! ( need to get some more bells though)
Also I have been doing a fair bit of knitting too. I made this scarf a few weeks ago and thought I would get the girls to take a couple of photos so I could scrap them at some point. I am so NOT a knitter LOL( I knitted lots of small squares several years ago and sewed them together to make a jumper.....it was more like a sleeping bag!!!), but I must admit I am thoroughly enjoying creating these ruffly scarves.

I fell in love with these Websters Pages papers a few weeks ago and ordered some after being totally and utterly inspired over the past few months of looking at the lovely blog of Jo's

She is a fantastic scrapper and superb card maker( aswell as being a lovely, lovely blogger) and she has used Websters a lot in both crafts, please do pop over and enjoy some time floating through her inspirational posts.
I am totally in love with the colour Teal ( you may already know that lol) and on a trip over to Crawley recently I found this beautiful trim in a fabric shop, it would have been so rude to come out without buying some wouldn't it! I also had the sequin trim in my stash, which I thought went well with the page.

Out came my beloved Ice Stickles and I spattered them EVERYWHERE lol.
I had some large creamy coloured paper flowers and wanted to match a couple to the papers

, so I coloured a couple with a Marine Promarker..... I love the depth of colour, so rich.
I used 2 sheets of the same Hollywood Vogue papers and made the large circle using the reverse side and cut out and Stickled the other elements and then layered them up with foam pads. I then just added some fancy pins, crystal sprays and some gold dots

I have to say I really enjoyed creating this page and now I really REALLy want to play with some more Websters pages.....so THANK YOU Jo for your wonderful inspiration!

Have a super weekend and thanks for looking.

Warmest wishes Anita..xxxx

Perfect Promarker Prize!.....and a layout.

Just thought I would drop you a reminder about this months challenge over at Scrapology
its called E is for Embellishment and its a beautiful layout that we have been lucky enough to lift. Why not pop over and have a look and join in.
Its well worth a try I can promise you, just check out this months fabulously perfect prize that once again has been very kindly donated by our lovely friend Jill of Cardinal Colours
This lush set of 10 Promarkers could be yours.....so what are you waiting for? You have till 4th dec to enter this months challenge, we would love to see what you create.

Right, well I have a layout here to share with you. I have used the pink Paislee 'Queen Bee' range for this and 2 sheets of bazill cardstock ( Auckland and Bitter chocolate)

Lots of cutting out for this page and layering up using foam pads to add depth to the page. It was then inked and Stickled and I finished it using Velvet thickers for the title( they are sooooo lovely to stroke lol)

That's it for now...thanks for looking.

Warmest wishes Anita..xxx

Splitting the Light Fantastic!!!!......and a card to share.

Hello there :)
Well after having a totally brilliant day out at Jill's monthly crop yesterday with a super special bunch of friends, I came home to smallest daughter wanting to go for a wander up the road to see some fireworks...hhhhhmmmmmm.....there arrived our first problem! We appear to have missed them all lol. we went for a wonder through the centre of our estate and saw literally 2 tiddly little rockets go up, I think they let out a little spit and a half hearted fizz and 3 pink stars and that was it!!! We could hear lots going off in the distance though. So we hung around in the dark for a little bit, then Chloe said she wanted to go home andhave some sparklers....so thats what we did!
After the sparklers she decided she would put on a little light show of her own and cracked open a tube of the snap and glo sticks and activated them....and the show began!

You are impressed aren't you!....I can tell LOL ( well, it WAS far more impressive than the fireworks we had seen outside he!he!he!

Can you see the ghostly outline of her face up in the top right hand corner of the next photo?....almost spooky eh!

Then we popped back into the front room to get some more sticks aglow.......and that's when it all went wrong....
.
.
.
.
.
.
Chloe bent one of the electric bluey violet wands to activate the chemicals and make it glow......and it did inndeed glow.....and splatter....and dribble....all over her hands AND sprayed over the carpet!!!
But LOOK....its really rather pretty and looks a bit like some strange new star formation!
And I am pleased to say that tonight it appears to have cleared ok as there is nothing glowing in the lounge or on youngest daughter!!!




Here is the card that I made for our lovely Linda for her birthday , which was friday, but I saw her yesterday :) Lynn made her THE most awesome birthday cake, it was all vanilla, choc and pink marbled sponge inside, covered in white chocolate and then peppered with hundreds of hot pink smarties....and tasted delish!!!

I made the card on a 6 x 6 card blank from craftwork cards and the paper was from the Bo Bunny Peacock Lane range , I coloured the image(by Miss Anya I think
) with Promarkers and finished the card off with Stickles, organza ribbion and Prima e-line crystals and pearls, all from Cardinal Colours

Well, I am climbing up the wooden hill in a minute as I am back to work tomorrow after having nearly 2 weeks off.....jeeeez I don't feel much like getting up in the morning at 3.30....especially as there is already ice covering the car :(

sleep tight..xxx

Birthday Cards,Doughnut Bobbing and Fail Bake!

Hello there....I have got a few things to share with you in this post....not all good...eeeek!
Firstly I thought I really must post my mum's Birthday card that I made for her.....or rather Birthday Explosion Box Card.


Its made in basically the same way as a normal explosion box, but I have cut the corner sections off at an angle and then added flowers and a little Magnolia figure in the centre. I have seen these boxes in my travels round other blogs in the past, but i am sorry I can;t credit which ones as I never saved a link :(

Its very sparkly in real life and rather pretty( if i say so myself...hope I don;t sound big headed though lol) The flowers are all edged with Crystal Stickles and there are Stickle dots on the paper too. The little girl is coloured with Promarkers

I guess I really should have taken a photo of the box with the lid on....oh well...maybe another time.

So...onto the doughnut bobbing! This was the main evening entertainment( apart from pass the parcel LOL) the other night at my Mum's house...we popped down to see her on Sunday on her actual birthday and we took a long a couple of bags of doughnuts and long ribbons!

These were then hung from a long ribbon going from the top of the door to the top of the broom and then it was held high so the doughnuts dangled temptingly ( is that even a word??) infront of the girls. They had to try and eat the whole doughnut as fast as they could....without using their hands!

Holly was quite good at it!

I said WITHOUT using your hands Lauren!!!

Good fun was had by all.....and there was sugar EVERYWHERE!!!!!

Ok, so now we are moving onto the not so good.................Fail Bake!!!!!!!

Bet you can't guess what this is supposed to be???????????

Nope, it's not chocolate sponge triangles..........or burnt apple turn overs....... they ARE supposed to be croissants!!!!! And no...not chocolate ones at that!

Firstly i know they are totally the wrong shape for a start....yep, I forgot to roll them up.....and yep, they cooked for just an oodle too long....and no....the birds didn't like them either! At one point we had 2 seagulls with a kango hammer trying to break into them on the front grass.



Soooooo......I had another go....and followed(read) the instructions....he!he!he!

And they came out like this

so when they were cooked ( to perfection I might add) I also popped in some ham and cheese....yummy yum yum! The seagulls did NOT get any! I don't think I will give up my day job though.

......right, just going out for a little stroll up the road to see if we can see any fireworks and to take out some sparklers....Happy Bonfire Night :)

Happy Birthday Linda!!!!

Wishing you a very lovely day Linda and hoping you get totally spoilt!


Really looking forward to spending the day with you,Lynn and the other girls at the crop.

Lots of Love Anita..xxxxxx

E...is for Embellishments over at Scrapology

Can you believe it November already!!!!! Well over at Scrapology our challenge for this month is E for embellishments!

This month we have been inspired to scraplift this beautiful layout by Cindy Schneider, who we found on Scrapbook.com. This is a digital scrapbook page but we have all made layouts with paper and glue!
Here is my version of the original, which I decided to take the sketch and flip onto it's side to create my page with.

Here is the orginal digital page....gorgeous isn't it
??

and here is the sketch of the original page that Lynn very kindly drew up for us to work from, thanks Lynn.

We have been making and using some of our own embellishments on the page, so I thought I would add a couple of close ups for you to see.

I cut all the butterflies from a sheet of Basic Grey Ambrosia paper. The orange flowers are made from organza and the autumnal flower in between was originally just cream in colour, so I attacked it with my Promarkers ;)



The crinkly flowers were made by using my Retro daisy punches in various sizes and then I misted them with water to make them more flexible,before twisting and scrunching them and leaving them to day.

Once dry I just layerd them up and added a crystal centre. I dabbed the white doily with my teal coloured paint and then gently sponged on 2 different mettalic paints to and some shimmer.

Not handmade I know, but I scattered several of my mountain of brads randomly all around the edge ( it felt good using up old stash that has been gathering dust and being saved for 'just the right page' LOL)

And I finished the whole page off with stitches here and there. Of course, my fave thing about the page is the gorgeous little man on there ;)

So, if you fancy a challenge this month to get your juices flowing, then pop over to Scrapology

we would love to see what you create. And whilst you are there have a look and see what beautiful examples there are from the DT.

Warmest wishes Anita..xxxx

Well here we are in November already

Happy Birthday to My Mum and happy halloween to you all!

Hello there....Happy Halloween to you all, I hope you have all had a suitably spooky evening so far.
Today also happens to be my dear Mum's Birthday....so HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you, you very special and much loved lady...you mean the world to me, Dale and the girls and obviously also to Donna,Ian and the little ones xxxxxxxxx

Well yesterday Donna and Ian held a wicked halloween Birthday party, so i thought I would share a few....actually LOTS of photos with you....so be prepared to be scared....be shocked...be horrified lol, but also be prepared to laugh....cos I think you will...I just hope you won;t be bored with them all......you have been warned!!!

so first of all let me set the scene with Lauren and Chloe's Pumpkins.....

Doesn't this make just the most divine family portrait?

The cutest little witch at the party, brewing up some magic for us all...

I was strangely attracted to this fella, i just wished he would clean his teeth a bit better....made me feel a bit queasy!

He even scared the young un's!

Here is Big Bones and his sidekick Lil Bones....

Me and my girly....she really needs to learn to apply her make up better don't you think?

My Sister made thia super birthday cake for our Mum....and all the little pumpkin biscuits round the bottom too.....delicious!!

Lauren and the birthday girly....love her necklace that she made from the little ones Hama beads.

the *Other* family Portrait! As you can see, they are a fine looking bunch too ( especially the teeniest,tiniest one!)


Good looks ( and teeth!) run in the family....who could resist a pair of hotties like these eh???

Right, thats it ( are you still awake or have your eyeballs dripped into the keyboard lol)....I need to climb the wooden hill and get some sleep....after having a lovely week of lay ins I have to revert to getting up at 3.30am in the morning....booooooooohooooo! But only for one day...then I have the rest of the week to enjoy again he!he!he!

Catch you soon

warmest wishes Anita..xxxx