The First Lick is the Sweetest...

I forgot to share these pictures with you from the weekend. We went as a family to the annual Barton Beer Festival. The weather was gorgeous, so we decided to go in the early afternoon.

Now, these pictures mean a lot to us, as up until February of this year, Joseph was diagnosed with a lactose and milk protein intolerance and therefore was unable to have dairy products, and consequently anything containing whey powder or lactose. Would you believe that even some tomato ketchups contain milk! Of course, we were very lucky that Joe didn’t have anything more serious, as all it meant was we had to avoid the foodstuff.

I really shouldn’t be complaining as there are many children more seriously affected by the intolerance, but eating out and staying away from home was a nightmare, except for at Disney World. Here, they bent over backward to help us, and would cook things especially for Joe so he could share the same experiences as we. For example, the chef of a self-service eatery came out to us one day, and said he could make Joseph a Mickey Mouse shaped pancake with Soya milk! How cool is that! Compare this to England where in a hotel (that was part of a large chain). The chef commented that ‘he wouldn’t like to say whether milk was present in any of the foods that provided’! I know that they couldn’t guarantee any transference of milk, but you would think they could have informed me which food items contained milk, as surely they would have an ingredients listing. Combine this with the fact that milk protein intolerance is the most common children’s allergy, and it’s pathetic. Anyway, that’s another story.

So, in February he had a milk intolerance test (as 90% of children over the age of 5 grow out of the intolerance), and lo and behold, Joseph had outgrown it early!! This is the FIRST ‘99 cone that Joseph has ever had, and it looks as though it was worth the wait! I love you ,Chuckles!

Talking about ice cream, look what landed on my table in a gorgeous little cafe yesterday! It would have been rude to say no, and anyway, a figure like mine doesn't keep itself, you know. He he!!

Sweet like chocolate...

Well, chocolate is candy in America!

Here is my offering of blog candy for all you craft addicts out there. Do crafts have very kindly said that I can give away some of their goodies so here they are. These will be sent to one lucky participant. All you have to do is make a project using your favourite colour - something nice and easy, I told you it would be! Just leave me a link to your creation! You have a week from today, which will make the 12th the closing date. The lucky participant will be chosen by a random number generator, so get cracking!

Because you're Gorgeous...la la la!

Have you spotted what will be the BIGGEST news that will take the crafting world by the crown jewels and shake it up? Just take a look at this, the delicious NEW logo, completely girlie and funky; the NEW products, including textured cardstock in NEW colours, printed acetate (12 x 12) to co-ordiate with the NEW papers in 12 x 12 and 6 x 6, ribbon, chipboard embellishments and cardstock stickers. the paper gsm has increased from 120 to 160gsm, so it is much more robust and easy to work with. Oh, and did I mention the 6 NEW sets of Clear Stamps, again co-ordinating with the everything available.

Another great feature is that even though the pastel paper packs feature cup cakes (yu-mmy), and spots and swirls, there also papers that will suit masculine projects. Also, the christmas ranges of papers have deen designed so that most of the papers included can be used all year round, making paper for life, not just for Christmas *groan*!

I had the pleasure of using all these NEW products on the DO Crafts roadshows, and it really is gorgeous stuff. It was so easy to work with, as everything to-ordinates to make your projects look great!

Watch out for these scrummy NEW products hitting Do crafts stockists in July 2008! Ssh, did I mention something NEW!

Nee Nah Nee Nah

Last night, three gorgeous firefighters came a-knocking at our door to give our house a full fire saftey check-up. The hiss of the hydraulic brakes must have woken Joseph from his slumber, as before long I could see his little head poking around the wall at the top of the stairs. So I called him down, and the fire fighters very kindly took our little man around the fire engine. Now, to this little munchkin, it is a big deal. He ABSOLUTELY loves Fireman Sam and anything to do with fire fighters and fire engines. I really wish I had the forethought to take some snaps with my camera. Joe's eyes were as wide as saucers as he looked around the engine, and saw the helmet, axe, the Jaws of life, the hoses and the ladders. The driver even put on the flashing lights and the siren for a couple of seconds. Joe's comment was "It doesn't have a Simon Snorkel like Fireman Sam's fire engine!" Oh well, you can't win 'em all! Today, he's gone to school with his Fireman Sam fire engine in hand, bursting to tell all his school chums about his magical visitors last night. Bless Him!

Blog candy is on it's way!

Good morning all!

Just thought I'd get your crafting radars buzzing at the thought of the offer of FREE blog candy. I will post a picture later of what's on offer, thanks to the fantastic bods at Do Crafts! I haven't decided what you will have to do to get your mits on the goodies, but, I promise it won't be too hard! See you later!

'Wicked' is Wicked!

Have you heard or even seen the new musical 'Wicked'? well, if you haven't and you like new style musicals then your ears are really missing out! I bought the CD which accompanies the show a few weeks ago, and I just love it. I crank it up loud, and have a good warble!! I haven't had the privilege of seeing it on stage yet, but when I do, they'll have to drag me from the stage. If you get a chance to have a listen, then do, I'm sure you'll love it!

We have a winner!!!

Good Morning All!

We have a new worthy winner of Clare's Challenge of the Week over at Do Crafts. It's Audrey, aka Big Aud. Well done Audrey, your prizes are on their way to you! This weeks challenge is all about using just left overs to create your project. Why not hop on over to the Challenge page to find out more. Remember, the challenge is open to all, and the winner is randomly picked, so everyone has a chance of winning! What have you got to lose?

Gorgeous Lushiousness!

I have had the wink wink, nudge nudge to be able to show you the cover of the long-awaited and completely scrummy Creativity Life Magazine!! This fantabulous slab of georgeousness will be available for all you avid crafters from July 1st. It will feature brands such as BasicGrey, Doodlebug, Core-dinations, and Clearsnap (home of the cat's eye ink pads!). OMG - I'm slavering at the thought if it all. So enjoy this little piccy, and I know we shouldn't wish our lives away, but roll on July 1st!

Rain Rain...

...Please stay! I just love the rain! Not the flooding rain amounts ( I wouldn't wish that on anybody), but the kind of rain that makes you feel snug and safe at home. Now, if I was out in it that would be a different matter - but I'm not, so I like it!





Did a silly thing last night. I was stamping all my new clear stamps onto cardstock before putting them in labelled CD cases - sad, but I love knowing where everything is, then went to bed. When I got up this moring and went into my craft studio, I realised that i had left the lid off the ink pad all night - DISASTER! Or so I thought. When I went and stuck my finger on top of the pad, it was still lovely and wet! So foiled again, fresh air - you will never win...mwhaaaa!

Today I have a card which I made a while ago. It's using the Papermania Creative Tones papers in Caspberry Champagne, and gorgeous pearlescent outline stickers. Go and check out Do crafts now for all the info! Have a great day! I'm singing in the rain.....

What a wonderful Surprise!

On Friday I received this lovely card from Carole Keeble through the letter box. What a wonderful surprise that was. As you can see, the image of me is very glamorous, and Anita, Sian, and Kirsty don't look half bad too! carole won one of the Do Crafts prize draws for tickets to the craft show at Olympia, and an overnight stay in a hotle, and she was our VIP guest on the day of the show. She went to the card making and scrapbooking workshop and joined me on stage at my demo, and showed me a crafty trick or too. She also helped me with the card I was demoing. Thanks, Carole, it was a lovely suprise - I will tresure it always!