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Sunday, September 30, 2012

A Little Bit Overdue

No matter how much time you have, you just never seem to have enough do you!!! I seem to have fallen a little bit behind with sharing projects we've made again, so from today I'm back for a whole weeks worth of posts to try and get things a little more up to date....starting with today's projects...

Way back on the 18th September, Lady celebrated her anniversary with Wiggers...or to be a little more accurate, Mel and Mick!!! As always, when it comes to making cards for Lady, it's a little more complicated. As you know she's a fellow crafter, so the pressure is on to make them that extra bit perfect...or at least try!!! I can sit for days/weeks with a blank mind trying to concoct an idea of what to do, until finally at last it'll hit me. For her anniversary, I have a bit of a confession...the layering was actually supposed to have been for Lady's birthday card...but as I couldn't get any pink card to match what I needed (just how many shades of pink can there possibly be!!!) I decided to use it on their anniversary card instead!!!


What do you think??? The moment I put the stitched layers with the inner image, I just knew I had to use them on this...but there was still something missing...I had no ribbon!!! You can't possibly make a card for Lady without ribbon...it breaks the "law of the wibbon"!!! So after a "lightbulb moment" I decided to add the little heart to the tree with their names with the ribbon on top...problem solved!!!

In addition to the ever so important ribbon on her cards, when it comes to making cards for Lady, there's usually one choice of colour...pink, pink and more pink!!! But when Mum made her anniversary card she had a problem...there were specific images from a kit she really wanted to use, but none of them were pink...she "ummed" and "aaahhed" for hours trying to work out if it was the right thing to do, but eventually after a lot of "yep Mum, it's perfect" from me, she made this ...


Not a single bit of pink in sight...but very very cute. Anyway, how many pink cards can one person have??? (the answer's not 84!!!) Originally, Mum had laid everything out and it looked beautiful, but then I noticed something...no ribbon again...if one card without ribbon breaks the "wibbon law" then what the heck does two cards without ribbon do!?! So, with a bit of shuffling about, Mum added the daisy ribbon which matched perfectly with the little daisy in the bear's hand....but it still looked like something was missing....cue a bit of glue, a lot of gems and even more "Ooo for Christ's sake's" and the little daisy's had red gem centres....perfect!!! 

Even up until the moment Mel had opened her card, Mum was worrying about the missing pink!!! Thankfully though I think Mel loved it, even without the pink!!!

Happy belated anniversary Mick & Mel

Little x













Saturday, September 22, 2012

Baby Bowe

Hi, it's crusty here! Today its my turn to write a post.......this will be fun...... here we go....... Today's post is about what I made for my friend Annie and her boyfriend Danny as they welcomed a new addition to their family on the 10th september. The arrival of their baby boy named Bowe CONGRATULATIONS!!. I should tell you a little about how I know Annie and Danny .....Well, I have known Annie all my life (24years now) we grew up together. We lived right next door to each other for a good amount of years.  From what I can remember from my childhood, we had so much fun together. We used to have parties in the  play park that was right outside our house. We would have bouncy castles, face painting, an ice cream van and even decorated the park too! We also used to have water fights during the summer when the whole street would join in. Myself and Annie went to the same secondary school. Which was the same school that Annie's boyfriend Danny went. Danny was the year above us. Annie and Danny met after we left school, and they also have a beautiful little girl called gracie who has recently turned 5 (happy birthday). So Gracie's now become a big sister to her baby brother Bowe. 

This is the card that I cross stitched. I got Mum to put it onto a card for me as I'm not so confident at putting it all together! ......

Mum also made this cute little nappy cake gift for baby Bowe, complete with little blue bunnies.....





I had my first cuddles with little Bowe yesterday, and can confirm he's as gorgeous as the pictures I'd already seen! 

Congrats to you both again.

Lindsay x

Saturday, September 15, 2012

She's 68 you know!!!

She'll kill me for saying this...but no, I don't mean Mum's 68!!! hahaha nope ...remember my Nanny that I was telling you about a couple of weeks ago??? Well, she turned 68 on the 10th of September. Now usually we take the time to figure out what she'd like/needs for her birthday, but with her moving home and everything that went with it, this year was a little bit different...

I should probably start this thing off by giving you a bit of a background into my Nanny...you see, she's never really had much and lived a pretty simple life, but 33 years ago she gave a gift that I could never put a price on...she gave me a very stable life...How??? Well, my parents were rather young when I came along (17 & 18) so our family didn't have the best of starts. They both still lived at home with their parents and neither of them had much money, but what they did have was support and a heck of a lot of determination. With very little money between them, my parents both needed to work in order to support me. Now ordinarily that would have meant having to pay for my childcare or passing me from one friend/relative to another in order to make a living...Not my parents though...Nope...33 years ago my Nanny gave up her right to earn a decent living and make a better life for herself in order to allow my parents to give me the best possible start. She was my babysitter...not that my parents were never there...no, no...just that when they were out working full-time to provide for themselves and me, my Nanny took care of me. Like I said, it wasn't the best of starts, but they made it work...and at times when they were struggling, again my Nanny would be there...not with money, but with love and support. I can't say that I remember everything about those days, but I do know that when money was really tight, I always came first...Mum and Dad would often come home after a hard days work to a dinner of just beans on toast while I was fed by my Nanny because there simply wasn't enough money...it was tough, but I have no regrets...my childhood was far from the poverty stricken one I'm probably making it sound like!!! haha...I really was a happy child...when my parents weren't around, I had my Nanny and when Nanny wasn't there I had my parents back...I knew where I was and what I was doing...I never for a second felt like I wasn't wanted or unsure of who I was with...I wasn't surrounded by the best of things nor did I have the latest craze toys...I had more than that...I had love, support and a developing sense of imagination that came from spending time building tents or playing shops with my Nanny or my parents.

Now eventually things changed...we moved into our own home...my parents got married and inevitably that brought me my Brother and Sister. Having been an only child up until the age of 8 I'd have been forgiven for holding some resentment towards my siblings for taking attention away...but that wasn't the case...I still had my parents and my Nanny...nothing had changed...well apart from I now had small things drooling over my favourite toys!!! As the years rolled by, my Nanny became more and more important in our lives. During the school holidays she'd look after the three of us whilst Mum and Dad continued to work to support us. Again, you'd be forgiven for thinking that we were just left to get on with things...but it wasn't the case...school holidays were amazing times...my Nanny took us on little adventures...little adventures that didn't cost money that is!!! We'd pack up a picnic and head off to some little play parks not far from us...we'd take trips to the local duck pond ...we'd spend hours sitting in the strawberry fields filling punnets with half the strawberries we picked whilst eating the other half!!! They were some pretty amazing times...times I got to spend with my Nanny. 

I've always counted myself extremely lucky...lucky to have born whilst my parents were so young and full of energy...lucky to have a Nanny that was just 35...35!! When I was born who had enough energy to spend hours during the school holidays traipsing about from one place to another to ensure we got the most our of our days and extremely lucky to have had such a stable and loving upbringing....and why was that??? Well because in my opinion my Nanny made the selfless decision to give up her life to give me a better one. She could quite easily have gotten herself a full time job and spent the time earning herself the money she so rightly deserves, but instead she worked the odd part-time job around her babysitting hours and then once we were old enough she became a dinner lady at our school in order to still be able to have the school holidays off to look after us...not many people in this world would have done the same thing.Ooo and not only has she done this for us...nope, my Nanny also did the same thing for my 3 Cousins...the only difference is she's now a lot older with a lot less energy to do the things she did with me...but like I said, I was the luckiest one of all of us...I got to see her in her best years. 

So, now you understand just a fraction of why my Nanny is so special to me, I'll get back to her birthday!!! Nan's always been a bit of a complainer when it comes to her birthdays/christmas...she'll give her typical "you lot shouldn't spend so much money on me" "It's too much" and "I feel bad that I can't buy you as much as you buy me"....but what she always seems to forget is that there's 5 of us in our side of her family...5 adults to buy for just her...whilst there's just 1 of her to buy for 5 of us...1 of her on a measly little pension that she gets because she chose to provide for us instead of herself...Plus as we tell her time and time again...no amount of money will ever be able to repay what she's done for us over the years, so the things we do now are our way of trying to say thank-you. 

As I mentioned before, this birthday was a little different to the others...this year she moved home. Only once she had moved home did we realise just how little she has...so we brought her all new curtain for her new flat...we brought new cutlery, new utensils, a new table cloth...and all the little bits and bobs that have helped to make her house a home. Mum recovered an old ottoman that was once ours (it's still got Crusty's 101 dalmation stickers on the inside!!!), she recovered the little wooden chair Nan had in her bedroom that was once part of my Grandma's (Nan's Mum) table set and she even made a little cushion to match. This years presents weren't so much about what we wanted to buy her, as they were about what she needed to make her life easier. When we moved her into her new flat we discovered an old cork board that had been left behind, which we knew would be come in handy in her kitchen. So with a little bit of paint and some ribbon, it turned into this ...


Whilst spending time with Nan at her new flat, I noticed she was writing her shopping lists on scraps of paper or the back of envelopes. She even stole the little pack of post-it-notes we'd left behind whilst moving her and was writing her lists on those!!! So I decided that somewhere to keep her lists would be ideal, and with the cork board now covered it was the ideal place to keep them...


So with a bit of cardboard box covered in pretty paper and an old clip from off of a no longer used clipboard, I made the little clipboard that will now house her shopping lists notepad!!!


Ooo and after digging about in our craft stash, we couldn't resist adding the odd cupcake or two for decoration!!! So this became one of the presents we gave to Nan on her birthday...and how much did it cost??? well, just the price of the ribbon, some pins and some paint...the rest was all pulled from stuff lying around the house. But then again, even if we'd brought her a notice board, it wouldn't have meant half as much as this one does to her.

Now when it came to cards for Nan's birthday, I've already shared most of them with you in previous posts. In fact there's only one I have left to show you. That was the one that was stitched by Crusty and put together by me...


Nan's got two little budgies that my Aunt brought her years ago...they annoy the heck out of me with their constant chirping away, but she loves them!!! So when it came to choosing an image for her card, Crusty knew it had to be the birdcage with two little birds...added to the floral paper, I think it makes quite a pretty card, which thankfully Nan agreed!!!

Ooo and seeing as Nan's now living in her new flat with lots of new friends, she of course needed some cupcakes to share around ...after all, what's a birthday without cake???


Don't worry, Crusty made these cakes, so not a sinking middle in sight!!! Mum and I then made the little flowers for decoration...


which added to the very pretty looking cases made some rather vintage looking cakes...bit like the birthday girl herself...vintage looking!!! 

One last thing before I go, Nan's settled into her new flat unbelievably well...so well in fact that everyone now calls her by her nickname...Biddy!!! Why Biddy?? Well because way back when she turned 60, we started calling her an old Biddy, which then became Biddy/Bids. Even our friends started calling her Biddy!!! So when it came to her moving into her new flat and people needing to remember her name, we told them to call her Biddy as it was unsual enough to remember!!! So Biddy stuck, and now everyone calls her it!!! Ooo and Biddy received no less than 11 birthday cards this year from all her new friends...not bad for someone who's just moved in is it!!!

Love you Bids 
Little x


Friday, September 14, 2012

Crusty's Birthday...Next Time I'll Take A Picture!!!

Ok, so I know I was supposed to be on a post a day for a month challenge, but then I had issues with my laptop. Then the issues were fixed...or so I thought!!! Turns out they weren't fixed, so I've been unable to post things properly...BUT now I'm back with plenty of makes to share, so you'll be hearing a heck of a lot from us over the next couple of weeks...I hope you're ready!!!

I'm kicking off the back log with a post that is long overdue...in fact I think Crusty/Lindsay thinks I've forgotten all about her...I haven't!!! It was her 24th birthday back on the 3rd of September...I still can't quite believe she's 24!!! I can still picture her as a tiny little girl that was obsessed with wearing a multi-coloured pair of pumps everytime she left the house!!! I can still hear her calling our Brother "Ga-Wuff" in stead of Gareth...and I can still recall the countless trips we took to Finkley Down Farm Park that was (and still is) her favourite place!!!

24 she is though, and definitely a lot more expensive than she was when she was younger!!! Crusty's always baking some cake or another around here...not that I'm complaining (especially when I get to eat them)...but what we thought might have just been a phase has now turned into baking almost every week!!! So, seeing as there wasn't much else she wanted and there was no question of it getting over used, we all chipped in a little bit and finally brought her a professional mixer...

Not that she got it on her birthday...nope as soon as it was delivered, it was out of the box and used!!!

Now, I'll be totally honest... Mum and I aren't exactly bakers ...my job's the measuring whilst Mum's a little too impatient and keeps wanting to open the oven to check how everything's getting on...BUT we couldn't ask Crusty to make her own birthday cupcakes could we!?! So, we tried our best and after a few disasters, came up with these ....




I should probably explain... for years, we've all played the "yellow car" game...if you're not familiar with it, it's a game whereby everytime you see a yellow car you get to hit the closest person to you and shout "yellow car"!!! It was probably made up years ago as an excuse to hit everyone, but as I said, it's a game we played as kids. Until recently when it seems to have made a re-appearance which now consists of punches everytime you spot a yellow car, no matter where you are AND if the other person isn't there, then you take a picture of it on your phone (if you're quick enough) and send it to the other person!!! So...Crusty's birthday cakes were the ideal excuse to hit her...and hit her I did!!! 

Ooo and I'll let you in on a bit of a secret...Mum and I made these cakes before Crusty's birthday whilst she was away for the weekend. We set them all out and decorated them, then had to put them away until she came home later in the day. But that caused a problem....you see, when it came to trying to put them back together we couldn't get the road to flow right...Mum was certain it was 6cakes wide and 4 cakes tall...turns out it was 5 cakes by 5 cakes!!! Whilst Mum and I were struggling to get it all back together Dad piped up with "didn't you take a picture of them so you'd know how to put it back together?"...NO!!! Lesson learned hahaha!!!

Ok, baking attempts over I'll get on to showing you the projects we're more used to making!!! Starting with the card I made her ...


Yep, yet again I've hand stitched all the edges around the card...but I did it so long ago, that I was sitting out in the garden in the sunshine while I stitched!!! I actually love this card...so much so that I've already requested one of my own for my birthday!!! 


Mum made this one from our Brother...a while back we made this cupcakes paper for another project, so when it came to making a card for Crusty, this paper was an obvious choice!!! Add that to the little mouse carrying the large cake and you've got this card!!! 


Lastly this is the card Mum made for Lindsay from her and Dad. Another card for crusty...another cupcake!!! This one's so cute and girly, I love it.

I'll tease you a little bit here, because there was another card that I made my Sister, but I can't share it with you as there's another copy of it for someone else who's not had their birthday yet...I'll tell you now though, that I am so proud of it, I can't wait to show you all!!! 

So there you go Lobby Lou...I do love you!!!

Little x






Saturday, September 1, 2012

A Mere Technicality!!

Apologies for the slight gap in proceedings!! I've been having a few technical issues with this laptop. Thankfully it all appears to be sorted no, so normal service can resume haha!! 

First up I need to share the remaining card from Zoe's set with you ... 


As I mentioned in the previous post, Zoe is a huge lover of tatty teddy, so when her Fiance Chris asked us  to make another card, it was again an obvious choice of topping!! Mum made this one all pretty and girly ...isn't it cute?? Again, Zoe we hope you've had a great birthday weekend!!

Next I have a couple of cards that were made for my Grandad, who's birthday it is today. When it comes to making cards for Grandad it's not all that easy. He's not really into anything in particular and doesn't have a particular sports team that he supports, plus he's not really a big drinker, nor does he have a car...none of the typically male choices really apply. I guess that's why choosing a card from the shops for him was always difficult...what do you get a newspaper reading, crossword puzzling man???


...this of course!! The bear even has a bit of my Grandad's look about him!! Ooo and remember how I told you about my new trick of stitching the cards?? Well, this was one of the first cards I zig zag stitched the edges of...and all by hand...not a sewing machine in sight!! 

When it came to Mum making a card for my Grandad, she too had a troublesome time. She asked Dad what his Father liked or if he had any ideas as to what Mum could put on the card...unfortunately my Dad was as useless as a chocolate teapot!!! So after a bit more thinking from Mum, she came up with the fact my Grandad likes ships....again Mum asked my Dad what sort of ships his Father liked, and eventually they chose an image...


 Mum then matched the colours of the image to the papers for added effect...not bad for a ship card huh?? hahaha!! 

Hope you've had a lovely birthday Grandad 

Little x