On the move!

We're off to a new pad on Saturday! More space than current one and better designed and I'll have my own crafting space again woo hoo! And its got CUPBOARDS! I've always bemoaned this place as its only got one cupboard in the whole house so looking forward to a neat and tidy abode!

Other than that no news really, Molly's got bronchilitis but is fine, still smiles and coos. She's *nearly* rolling over now and likes to make a dive for it if you put her on the couch sat up so have to watch careful.
Ethan is full of snots yet again, Dr said most toddlers will be full of snots from now till february! He's saying one word still - Car. His eyes nearly popped out his head before when a car transporter went by lol bless!

Thats about it really, busy packing and whatnot!

Molly Moonbeams bad hair day!

Well my little Molly Victoria Trixie is turning into a right little madam indeed! She seems very bright, interested in toys, shows off pulling her dummy in and out herself and lives to hold hands and play with toys, she's worked out how to rock herself in the carseat bless her! Ethan gets on very well with her, she giggles her socks off when he plays with her, he hekps to put her dummy back in or tries to change her bum lol!

She woke up yesterday morning after her bath with frightful hair! I managed to put it in a bobble briefly but its been stuck like that for 2 days now haha!

I've also been frequenting Do Crafts lately to swap ATC's. I'm into them at the mo as its all I have time for! I look for a challenge, good ATCers particularly stampers to give me something to aim for, they do some fabulous work!

One such person is Tish (Kent) who swapped her gorgeous 6 sided ladies and gentlemen with me and asked for like for like, here was my response!

Its made with distress inks and then brushed with versamark reinker, stamps are time to stamp embossed with moonglow midnight emerald. Also stamped brown ink with bubblewrap, the tile is alcohol ink embossed with detail gold and its all edged with krylon gold :)

ATC's and more ATC's!

Gone a bit mad on ATC's this week lol! With a distinct lack of time in the day I can dabble here and there inbetween the kids falling asleep and just finish off in the evenings!

Did another 3 for 3 swap with Sherry from Do Crafts, I have 6 of her wonderful creations now, they're fab! Sherry's blog is here http://sherrysimpleblog.blogspot.com/

Here's the 3 I sent to Sherry. First is Sweet Child Blu and is a stamp from Time to Stamp youthful nostalgia plate available here http://www.ibrakeforstamps.com The background is moonglow starburst stains & gesso so its all sparkly!

This one is a Moon Dreams Femme on 6 tiles of 1"x1" stampbord and coloured with alcohol inks and glazed with dimensional magic.

This one is also from the youthful nostalgia plate and is stamped and embossed with moonglow copper obsidan on scraps of paper that have been inked and have layers of gesso on. Its a gatefold gothic arch so has an inside too!

This is the inside, again layered and swiped with gesso and the gold swirls are embossed

I've also made several encustic wax ATC's and other ones which are in my do crafts gallery here http://www.docrafts.co.uk/community/profile/profile.aspx?buddy=216454

Plodding on!

Moonbeams is still providing us with poo explosions up to her armpits! Although she's down to about 4 a day now so getting better *phew!*

Been looking at arty cards & ATC's and I sooooo wanna play and get messy! There is some amazing work around on blogs!

Anyways I have managed a little play around with the moonglow shadow inks again and they've turned out gorgeous! I love brown card and especially brown card which changes colour!

Here's some I made recently, you can see the glow on the top card. The bottom 2 are image wallets so they open up and have pockets inside for sending some stamped images.

I painted tilda with moonshadow ink too so the brown changes colour, its great stuff to work with!

And here's 2 of my darling babies! Ethan is being a good big bruv, awww he's a love for his mum, very helpful!

Catching up!

Poor Moonbeams is still sick bless her! She had a cold then that was followed by the runs which has now been going on for 16 days. I went through 70 nappies and 5 packs of baby wipes in a week!!! Dr has asked for some samples, Bruce asked me what I was doing this morning, Oh just taking a sample of Molly's poo, haha! Despite it all she's still smiling! She's very placid and sleeps through the night, loves being in the thick of the action with Eefie causing chaos around her, she just watches and laughs, well except when he hit her with a toy train, she told me in no uncertain terms she was NOT HAPPY!!!

Been having a go at making her some headbands after seeing them for $$$ on ebay! My lil girl will have bling!

On to Ethan, oh god love him. He is a little mother hen and helps me with all the housework. He puts his own nappies in the nappy bin, puts his mat back, put the milk in the fridge and closes the door for you, loads and unloads the washer and drier, puts the tablets in the machine, opens the drawer for the conditioner and closes it again, how good is he! Today I let him walk round Asda for the first time ever. He's always been strapped into the pram or trolley as he runs off but I thought I'd give him a chance. A woman was stacking some sandwiches and she had a load in a basket on the floor, one had fallen out. Ethan ran over, picked it up and put it back in the basket for her, how cute is that! I think the majority of his tantrums are down to lack of communication, he's not talking yet. He can say Car and phone and has a go at other words, wont be long now. I dont get many decent pics of him at the mo, he wont keep still long enough!

Here's a couple of wedding cards I made recently, the brides flowers were white & cream hence the very neutral shading!

First up is a Magnolia (surprise surprise!) Its on white card and I put it through the cuttlebug with the divine swirls folder on the bottom half then added a strip of patterned ribbon. The stamp was painted with versamagic chalk for a really subtle effect and the crowns were painted with 18ct gold krylon, the bride has got 3 translucent crystals and the groom has got 3 tiny black gems on the buttons. The 2nd card was done quite similar but you can see the shading on the dress more in that pic. I also used some flowersoft on the bunch of flowers for more dimension.

Poorly ick kids

Awwww Moonbeams has been poorly ick this week with a cold. She's a trooper god bless her, she sounds like a bulldog snorting in her cot but will still give you smiles even though her nose is blocked. We've been completely blessed with this one, she smiles all the time, waits patiently, puts up with her brothers tantrums and is sleeping ALL NIGHT! Between 11-12 hours ever night now what a star!

I think what helped was the Magic of Rooibos or South African redbush tea. I remembered reading some stuff about it being used for colic so looked into it again and gave it a whirl. She was a different child afterwards, very calm and relaxed. In the evenings she has the odd gripe or two but nothing like it was, definately made a difference.

Tilda & Co Challenge - Cold as Ice

I really liked the idea of this challenge so I did it twice! Love all the DT's work, outstanding as always!

If you'd like a go at the challenges they are here http://magnoliachallengeblog.blogspot.com/

Anyways here's mine. First one is So Heavenly Tilda which was coloured using distress inks. Its on silver holographic paper and has 3 jewel brads.

This one is Christmas Edwin again painted in distress inks

Stampbord card

Did this one for a rubber stamping swap I'm in. I sellotaped 16 pieces of 1"x1" stampbord together on the back then stamped the naked lady and masked her before stamping the rocks (which is actually a small mountain range stamp turned sideways) then stamped the stampscapes lakeside cabin, cloud rising moon (in yellow in) and oak tree branch.
I coloured using various inks and added highlights with sakura stardust clear pen and scratched out some more highlights and stars. I edged the image with palette hybrid ink in beaux arts blue, black stazon and gold krylon. I then separated the pieces and glazed with dimensional magic then mounted onto black card leaving a small gap. I also added some sticky gems to the bottom to finish :)

Why Oh Why....

Did we have another one!!! AAAARGH!!!

Awww thats unfair lol! Molly's got colic only she's a LOT louder than Ethan was when he had it. By god that girl can scream! She made my ears buzz before! Finding it quite tough going as she's clingy in the day and about 3pm it starts and goes on and on and on until around 8, by which time I'm ready to have a breakdown.

She had her 6 week check up this week, all's well, doctor found her birthmark which is a patch on the back of her head which we thought was a rash. They've also been a party this week, was Maxine's little boy's 5th birthday, Ethan crammed as much as he could in his big gob all at once lol! Molly slept through most of it and woke up when most of the kids had gone and it had gone quiet!

Here's new pic at 6 weeks (Notice Maxine's fabulous wallpaper in the background lol! She's dead proud of that you know! You'll recognise it from the american boy video ;-))

And this is Jamie's birthday card made with DCWV rock star stack, magnolia edwin with balloon painted with distress inks and outlined with a grey copi cmarker which sheilakins kindly sent me! The stars and number 5 are chipboard

More Magnolias :-)

I've not been able to make much since Moonbeams was born, not because of her but because of Eefie! Sounds daft but I cant work when I finally manage to get them to sleep as the fuse in my lamp has blown and i keep forgetting to get some and fix it and cant root round in the garage that time of night when i remember! I must must must remember to fix lamp lol!


Also need to go the village and pick up my photo printer ink for Molly's thank you cards, they're ready but just need photos to put on them!



Anyhow, this is one I made for Michelle's birthday who is a chums 4 mums co-ordinator from Crewe. She has rescued horses so I thought she might like it :) Background is moonglow shadow ink (the purple one!) Bronte the horse was painted in distress inks.

This is one I made for my nan's birthday. Its my usual shadow inks and starburst stains only this time I stamped Tilda onto paper matching the background, cut out the top and trousers and glued them on.

This one a bit out of focus sorry, was a rush job! DD came home with this grey piece of card with some ribbon and wooden flowers superglued on and asked if I could do anything with it as it was their english teacher retiring. The kids had written happy retirment..... ummm not good for an english teacher lol! She then told me she needed it for the morning! Was up till 2am working on it for her but did it!

Sheilakins bright idea!

My dear dear friend Sheilakins aka Mrs Doubtfire suggested a couple of weeks ago I give Eefie a pot of paint to play with and let him create as he could be the next salvador dali so I got him some paints as instructed, laid the paper out ready and gave him some brushes....

Not quite what I had envisaged lol!

He did manage to get a bit on the paper!

Molly Moonbeams

She's coming along nicely, getting her features now. She looks like her Granny Bali haha! Her hair sticks up and goes curly when she has a bath! She's got her daddy's nose and green eyes, he got them off his mum so she's actually more Trixie than us!


And here's Big Bruv taking his job seriously! He's quite taken with her, tries to put her dummy back in and passes me nappies. We have a little routine where I try to spend some one on one with both and then at 5pm we all sit on the couch and watch goldenballs, its quite sweet! Eefie isn't jealous of Molly, he's jealous of me and sometimes he throws a bit of a wobbler if he's not getting his fair share but he's really quite settled and accepting of her which is also nice :)

An Award and some cards!

I got an award off my good friend Loopy aka Rachel for being an inspiring crafter, thank You Rachel and what a gorgeous looking one it is too!

I gotta show you this card by Sheilakins. She used copic markers to colour it in and coloured the gems and ribbon to match. I recognised the crafter as soon as I saw it, very distinct style has Sheilakins and her work is always top notch

And I managed to make one too! This is for a Noobie swap on our yahoo group. One of the noobies let us down so I step in and replace it so her partner isn't let down. Its a nice and quick one, I stamped on a background of alcohol inks and gold krylon pen, mounted it on white and then another layer of alcohol ink then onto white card. Stamped a HOTP swirl at the bottom in versamagic and added some sticky gems - voila!

Oooh Magnolia blog candy!

Just spied this Magnolia blog candy on Andrea's blog. To be in with a chance of winning go to Andrea's blog

Good golly Miss Molly

Ahhh bless her little cotton socks! I rang the midwives last saturday as I wasnt happy with Miss Molly's cord, looked infected to me. Two midwives came out sunday and said it was fine. Again on thursday I didnt like the look of it and another midwife came out friday so I asked her to look and guess what - its infected!!! She's had a few gripey, clingy days and MW cut the clamp and stump off and phoned the doctor to get her anti biotic cream and I now have a happy Molly Moomins again :D

She's sleeping well (when its my turn haha!) and only up once in the night, well I say night its actually about 6am! She goes back off again for a couple of hours so she's a breeze most of the time. Ethan on the other hand, well I have the tune Oh Fortuna by Carl Orff running through my head all the time lol! He's developed the green eyed monster the past couple of days, throws his toys and dummies around, follows his dad everywhere and DEMANDS his lap time. He just likes to park his bum on my lap and cling hold of my hair and god forbid you interrupt his lap time!!

It will pass I'm sure :)

As for me, well I'm feeling immensely calm and serene at the moment, very content. Just need to work on getting my body back, my waist is like a size 12 but I have the deflated balloon look belly still lol! Need to do some sit ups when I get discharged from the midwives. Its all coming off gradually, about 2-3lb a day (great diet eh lol!) Been looking at those Wii fit thingies, they sound like fun so will save up for one.

What else, well I havent managed to make anything yet, I did some stamping and colouring but Eefie is being very demanding at the mo so attention is diverted to him as he needs it and I'm usually too knackered in the evening plus my table is a mess with baby things so that needs organising and things finding a place then I can sit down and make sumfink! I got a koi brush to see if that makes any difference to colouring which I'm keen to experiment with so watch this space!

Heres new pics of Miss Molly Moomims, looks like she's going to have her daddy's green eyes, she's got his nose, my lips, my mums mouth and her right ear is starting to stick out just like her dad lol! She's looking less like Yoda with each day and more like a lil girl as the wrinkles start to disappear!

We've survived!

Yes we're still in the land of the living and actually doing quite well! Ethan has turned into a little angel bless him! He's normally a handful and a half but the past few days he's been good as gold, he even put himself on the changing mat for a bum change, I couldnt believe it, normally its an ordeal and I have to chase him everywhere. He also seems to be understanding more of what you're saying to him, I asked him to get his shoe and he got his shoe and sat still whilst I put it back on, fantastic!

Molly Moo is a bit colicky some days so she gets clingy. On days where she's screaming and clinging to us its followed by a day of her doing non stop sleep! She only wakes once in the night between 4-6am for a feed and goes straight back to sleep so so far has been a doddle to look after!

We treated Ethan to his first ice cream cone as he's been a good lad.


We also took the kids out for a walk down the trans pennine. Ethan wanted to climb in and out of the new pram, he helped me push Molly Moo and had a good run round.

Daddy got Molly Moo out for a breath of fresh air and look at the size of those feet ahhhhh!

Little Miss Molly Moo

Little Miss Molly Victoria Trixie arrived on 24th June 2008 weighing 7lb 14oz. Got to hospital on tuesday morning to be told they couldnt induce me as she was already well on the way, apparantly I was 4cm so they sent me for a walk, labour started a short while later and she arrived 4 hours after that :)

Bye for now!

Got to be at the hospital by 8am to be induced as they need to get Molly Moo out (gestational diabetes) so next post will hopefully be a pic of her! Here's how she looked 10 weeks ago in 4d so I'm itching to know what she really looks like and if she looks like her 4d pic :D

Recent cards

OK I can't actually take the credit for this one although I helped a little hehe! This is Eefie's first crayon drawing which I thought would look great for a fathers day card. Looks like a red indian with feather and headband to me so WELL DONE EEFIE!

This is a stampbord domino book I recently made for the Something Different swap on our yahoo group. Its my first project like this, I've done a couple of half books before so this is my first full one. Its made with moonglow shadow ink, stamped with adirondack ink and glazed with added micro beads.

This is a birthday card I made for Rachael from my UKS team, I was experimentin' and like how it turned out. The background for the stamp I did by running the vintage photo inkpad round the edge, wetting it with a brush and gradually pushing the colour inwards. I like all the colours on it, moonglow shadow and ranger distress inks.

This is one I made DD's mate who's recently had a little boy. I used the cuttlebug with moonglow starburst stains daubed on and again its painted with distress inks. (I need more colours!)

This was made for Olive on our yahoo group for the teddy bear's picnic swap. Its the glitter acetate technique which I love doing but dont do very often anymore so thanks Olive, I enjoyed making it!

This is one I made for Benita for the IrRESISTable swap. It has the resist technique for the background. I tried using distress reinkers instead of inkpads and it went on like a dream so will definately switch to that in future. The butterfly is actually a rub on I've had for eons and "saved for best" I customised it a bit with sticky gems and added highlights with dimensional glaze and stickles glitter glue.



This is Arlyns birthday card - Shhhhh it isnt until Sunday ;) Its my favourite Tilda with flowers in her hair I coloured with distress inks only added lots more water for a more pastel effect. Then I've stamped round the edge with tapestry stamps and added dots of glitter and some real flowers in the corner.
This is Jack L's birthday card. This time its painted with versamagic (chalk) ink. Tapestry stamps again and the background is made with moonglow starburst stains. I liked how Tilda turned out on this one using chalk ink :)

This is flying off to Spain tomorrow as its for the yahoo groups Cutie Pie swap. Its on pink bazzil bling card with hero arts flowers and Tilda is painted this time with dee gruenigs blending blox.

And lastly this is one I've made for my 2 main midwives Alana and Helen as I wont get time after Molly Moo is here! I had Alana as a midwife with Eefie too so I've used Magnolia baby Alvin (how cute is he!) and Tilda with baby Tingla stamps painted with distress inks, marvy pens and adirondack ink. The lettering is a cuttlebug one - You're not the boss of me.


Hope you like :)