Wow, have you seen these?

I was having a bit of a browse online and checking my emails and I received an email from Clever Cut.

Have you seen these little houses over at Clever Cut?

They're gorgeous! I may just have to pop over to the shop and treat myself. At £4.49 each with a 10% discount until the end of December, you can't go wrong! They do mail order with them too and they're postage rates area fantastic!

Rosie-Dee's challenge

Sneaky peek.....




Visit the blog {here} to find out this week's challenge.

I received this lovely award from Deanne. Thank you hun, it's really appreciated.


This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships!These blogs are exceedingly charming.
These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends.
They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement.
Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers!
Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

I'm forwarding it to:

Kirsty - not just a very talented scrapper and creator of all things paperie, but a lovely lady and a fab momma to Ellie too.
Hayley - An amazing young lady who I truly admire for her strength and conviction.
Kaz - funny and oh, so talented!
Claire - I am in awe of her work - I've seen it IRL and she's VERY good!
Steph - A lovely lady, friend and talented scrapper.
Millie - Mum to Hayley, a lady who's strength and faith I can only imagine.

If I have missed anyone out, then it's not because I don't admire your work or your blogs, but I want to specifically honour those ladies above. w

My diet sucks!

You know what? I'm totally fed up at the mo, so I'm going to have a little rant about it, ok???!!!!

I have been told I have a wheat intolerance for the last 4+ years. As a wheat free diet wasn't making me any better and it has really been getting me down this year, I went back to the docs in July and insisted that something was done about it. I've had blood tests and followed elimination diets but nothing really came of them. I had tests in hospital in September and they came back negative for coelics disease and also for colitis. I wrote a little about it on my blog in September.

Anyhoo... as a result of the negative tests, I was told by my GP to basically 'go away and try an elimination diet for myself to see what is causing the problems!' I felt like such a time waster, I can tell you! I have been unwell for so long and it was getting to the stage that I had had enough and needed to get things sorted. So, as the NHS were unwilling to delve any deeper to help me, we paid £265.00 privately for the York Test. Basically you provide a small sample of blood (finger prick, that's all) and they test it for 113 different foods to find out what your allergies/intolerances are. The test arrived on the Thursday, I provided the blood sample on Friday (thanks to my boss, Lea, who had a bloody huge smile on her face when she pricked my finger - TWICE - to get the sample) and posted it off that night. They say that it takes 10 working days to get your results back to you. Mine were back the following Friday. Fabulous service.

Of the 113 foods that they tested me for, it turns out that egg white is my no.1 enemy!!! Never in a month of Sundays would I have figured egg to be the culprit. How long would it have taken me to work that one out.....?????!!!! During which time, of course, I would have continued to feel totally kak!

Also on my list of foods to make me feel shite are: Gluten (bread, cakes, biscuits and most breakfast cerals!), hazelnuts, cashews (mango is the same family, so no more mango chutney) and pork!!!!! (bacon, ham, proscuitto....)

Cutting these out means that the 5-day headaches that I suffer from are fewer and farther between. The tiredness is still there some days but the 24/7 pain is loads better and I can live with the level that it's now at comfortably IYSWIM?

As part of paying the fee, you get two telephone consultations with a dietician. I had my first phone call tonight. What a lovely lady she was too! So interested in my symptoms; she listened and took all my feelings on board. Didn't make me feel like I was wasting her time at all. What she now believes is that I have a lactose intolerance too. As this would be digestive rather than allergy/intolerance based it would not show up on blood tests.

So...... for the next 2 weeks I have to follow a STRICT dairy free diet. Remember the list of goodies I can't have already, well I have to add these little babies (amongst others) to it...

Milk (I can have lactose free)
CHOCOLATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (can you feel my anger???)
Cheese
Butter (or similar)

Basically I will be eating jacket potatoes with massive fresh spinach salads (no salad cream), dairy free mayo (tastes ok), balsamic vinegar dressing (huge quantities of this little beauty), tuna, veggies (lurve my veggies), chicken and fish. Good job I love all this list then eh? Fruit tea will have to be my preferred drink as I have Coffee Mate in my coffee.

Added to that are digestive enzymes and probiotic supplements (no, not of the yakult variety as that's dairy). MMMM..... can't wait!

I'll keep you posted.

Rant over (for now I think!)

More cards...

I seem to be on a bit of a card roll at the mo. Two more from the desk of Freycob @ Studio 4!!!




Papers are from the BasicGrey 'boxer' collection. Only other things added are Prima flowers, brads and an ink pad. Cards really do not need to be fussy or complicated. You can make them as easy as you like!

Been making cards...

Further to Dee's challenge this week. I actually made 8 cards from my leftovers. Two I've published over on that blog, but I'm showing the others here.

All cards feature the leftover paper scraps from the Crate Paper 'Lemon Grass' collection as supplied by Indigo Mill for our challenge blog. The stamps are from Papermania. The only other thing I used was a brown inkpad, some glitter glue and some white Pebeo paint.

This one I adhered to a canvas to make a piece of wall art if necessary. The contents of the card can be kept secret from prying eyes as it's closed with a ribbon tied into a bow.


All of these are just plain and simple 7"x5" cards.

Freycob @ Studio 4!!!

So, the studio is pretty much complete now. Will (bless him!) drilled a total of 36 holes yesterday for shelving, notice board, rails etc. By the time he'd finished and put it all together, we had run out of light and it was getting too near tea time to start on the skirting boards or putting the blind up, so that'll be for another day.

Anyhoo... want a sneaky peek of Studio 4? Yep! Ok then, here goes. The room is 2m wide by just slightly over 3m long, so not large at all. Small and compact, just like me HAHA!!!









I love the quotation under the window. It's a rub on/vinyl transfer from Lisa and Beckie, and oh, so true don't you think?

Rosie-Dee's Challenge

This week it is Deanne's turn to set the Rosie-Dee's Challenge. Remember last week I asked you to save your scraps...? Well if you pop over to our challenge blog, you'll see exactly why you needed them.

For now, here's a little sneaky peek...

I am the momma of a teenager!!!!

Ok, just who stole the last 13 years?! My eldest turned 13 today. A teenager :-o

It really doesn't seem that long ago since we first met this wonderful little baby that I held in my arms. Not a day goes by that we don't love him and feel proud of his achievements. Every day we see his personality grow and watch him become the wonderful young man that he is.

Always loved, always proud of you Jacob.

xxx

Freycob's studio.... update!

Thanks to the National Lottery (who footed the bill in a round about way - more info on that on my blog A Whole Lot of Rosie) I have furniture for my new craft studio.

On Saturday, Jacob was out with my sister and hubby for the day to choose his birthday and Christmas pressies from both his aunties and uncles. Freya was keeping Grandma company after our sad family news on Friday. Will and I spent the day in Ikea Wednesbury choosing lots of goodies to furnish and organise my new craft studio. As you do, we spent more than we expected to. But a BIG thank you to all those who regularly buy their lottery tickets as you funded my shopping trip! LOL

There were a couple of expletives when we were making up the furniture when we got home, (only because Will wouldn't listen to me when I told him the easy way to do it!!) The Expedit 5x5 unit and my desk are assembled. The storage boxes put together and filled and I need more space already! Hmmm.... I can see that too large sofa bed being moved out in the not too distant future. (The back was broken when we moved it back into the room after decorating anyway, but as it's currently placed against the wall, you can't tell).

I will get some photos taken and uploaded for you to drool over asap.

Deanne visited yesterday to help me move my stash up from the dining room, but impatient Freya and myself had already done it and pretty much got it organised, so we sat and drank coffee, ate chocolate and chatted before having a little bit of craft time together! Lovely! She bought me a beautiful delicate fuschia pink orchid for my room and to cheer me up after Friday's news too. What a sweetie!!

From every dark cloud, we discover a silver lining...

My last post on Friday was sad as it was about losing my Uncle Ray.

Those that know me well, will know that I never do the National Lottery - I did it every week, twice a week for years and never won so much as a tenner! I think that my ticket had the invisible words 'thank you for your donation' printed on the back that only the Lottery organisers could read, because I sure as hell couldn't. We made the decision to stop doing it a few years back. You have more chance of being struck by lightning and surviving than winning anything anywhere near decent.

So, where is this story going....?

Well, I had to pop into my local Tesco on Wednesday evening last week to get milk (need a cow, we get through so much in our house!) The lady in front of me was putting her Lottery on, so I thought 'ahhh, what the hell! I'll have a couple of Lucky Dips!' I made the comment to the lady who served me that I never waste my money on the Lottery and that I could be struck by lightning 3 times and survive each one before I won anything decent. She told me to go back and let her know how I got on with the draw.

I put my ticket into my purse with my till receipt and left the shop.

Friday morning before work, I empty my purse of old receipts and find my ticket. I made a mental reminder to check the numbers later and put the ticket back into my purse for safe keeping. Then mid morning I receive the very sad news from mum about Uncle Ray. Leave work for a time to go and see mum and dad, tell them that I love them dearly, always have and always will.

It wasn't until about 9.30pm on Friday night that I remembered the ticket in my purse. My computer was on, so I log onto the National Lottery website, check the numbers and OMG!!!!! I have 5 of them on one line!!!. Not convinced I go to a different section and input the numbers of my ticket into the site. It comes back that I have 5 matched numbers. I do this 4 times as it is surely lying to me.... isn't it??

Will is on the bed 'reading', or at least he was until he shut his eyes and fell asleep! I go and wake him to tell him and ask him to check the numbers for me as I don't believe what I see. He mutters a couple of expletives that I'm taking the proverbial (hadn't told him I'd put a couple of lines on on Wednesday).

So, he stumbles from the bed to the spare bedroom, checks my ticket against the draw numbers and mutters another couple of expletives! Yep, indeed there are 5 numbers that match.

We didn't win a massive amount, it was £1080 to be precise. But it will pay for the topsoil that we had delivered Friday afternoon, the furniture that we bought in Ikea for my new craft studio, the kids will have extra for birthdays and Christmas this year and Will may even get a little something special too (no, not the Nikon D3 he wants... I didn't win anywhere near enough for that!)

If you look at it one way, we were one bonus ball away from winning £96,404. One main draw number away from winning a share of £7.5million (there were 5 winners on Wednesday, each banking £1.5m). Or 5 numbers away from winning bugger all, which is where my numbers have always been in the past.

There will be some out there who will think it unfair that I've won and don't do it on a regular basis as I haven't put money into the Lottery to take back out of it. But to those I say.... tough!!! You have the same odds that I do, whether you do it weekly or not.

Did I put any lines on for Saturday's draw? NO, I DID NOT!!!! Lightning does not strike twice very often!

p.s. The lady who works in Tesco was very excited for us as she's never sold a winning ticket before!

Rosie-Dee's Challenge - Week 10

Sneaky peek...


Loving these papers from Indigo Mill. Pop over to the challenge blog to see both mine and Dee's projects this week.

Sadness...

Today we had some very sad news, my uncle (mum's younger brother) passed away this morning. Cancer is such an awful disease and sadly Uncle Ray lost his battle against it.

I feel so sad for my mum, as her and dad were due to go and see him today after he was discharged from hospital yesterday afternoon to spend his final days at home. They had decided not to go over last night as he would understandably be too tired after the move back home, instead choosing to go at lunchtime today. Unfortunately he lost his battle at 8.30 this morning. Mum will now never have that chance to say her final goodbye to her younger brother.

It has brought home the reality to me that we only have a finite time with the families that we love. I am lucky enough to still have both of my parents; something that my husband doesn't have anymore. Our two children have two very loving grandparents who they both totally adore.

God Bless and rest in peace Uncle Ray. You will be sadly missed. Once again in the company of your own parents and older brother.

Crate Paper -- Lemon Grass

Steph over at Indigo Mill is sponsoring the Rosie-Dee's Challenge blog for the next couple of weeks. She sent us a gorgeous set of 8 double sided papers from Crate Paper's Lemon Grass collection to play with.

I have made my project for the challenge and with some of the left over paper came up with this layout. I love teasels, they're so strange - not sure if they're a flower or a weed, but I like them anyway. I have several photos of them and thought that the photos went so well with the colours in this paper collection.



I've added extra texture with Prima flowers, brads, ric-rac and the paper strip pleated to simulate a ribbon. I made the 'note paper' for the journalling spot from the reverse of a bit of the paper using my new punch from Stampin' Up.

What do you think? Can anyone enlighten me about the teasel?

Thanks for popping over to have a look. Don't forget to visit the challenge blog on Sunday evening to see my other project.

** I know that I've spelled Teasel wrong on my LO, I've changed it now but am not changing the photo! LOL

Studio update....

Will had Wednesday off as he went with his best mate, his dad and my dad to the Emirates Stadium to watch Arsenal play another bunch of overpaid blokies - don't ask me who they were playing - I DON'T DO FOOTBALL - I mean... they kick a sphere of leather round a field for goodness sake!!!!

Thursday night saw the second coat of paint from a new tin, as we think the original tin had gone off and had left patches (it WAS lumpy with what looked like a 1" thick slick on the top when he opened it up). All now covered up and looking calming.

Friday - night off for good behaviour!

Saturday (I was at a crop all day!) - pristine, glossy white woodwork.

Sunday (today) - oak laminate flooring - don't ya just love power tools?! Not that he lets me near them as he knows he'll never get a look in again!!! LOL

New halogen light fitting installed (all the upstairs lights powered off, so he had to use an uplighter - doesn't it get dark early?!)

Sofa bed back in it's place - keeping that as my chill out area.

So, then, what's left to do....?

* New skirting board to be measured and cut then fixed to the wall before it's waxed (love wood grain, can you tell?!)
* Trip to Ikea on Saturday to get my desk and storage units. Assemble furniture
* Move stash upstairs to my new Studio (I'm being evicted as soon as possible from the dining room now my room will be ready - also, going to do this while Will is at my mum and dad's on Sunday shovelling 4 tonnes of topsoil into our new veggie beds - can you see my reasoning here.....? If he's not here when I move it, he won't see EXACTLY how much stuff I have. MWAHAHAHAHA

* Take some photos of my new space while it's tidy - before I start to craft in there and destroy the karma of it all ;-)

Rosie-Dee's Challenge

This week Dee has set the challenge and I have to say it's one that's making my mojo tick!

So much so, that I thought I'd give you a little sneaky peek....

New size... new album... new shop!!

I've got this lovely album winging it's way to me in the post from the new Indigo Mill online shop. Dee challenged me to get out of my box recently and to scrap in a size that was NOT 12x12". I chose to make a 6"x12" page (or two!) and now I have nowhere of the correct size to store it properly.

Can't wait for it to arrive and to make up some more pages in this fab size! I have already got the Black Cord 12x12" album and it's lovely and tactile!

You should take a look at the shop, Steph has some lovely stash in there and some fantastic kits at really reasonable prices too!

Freycob's Studio...

Is finally underway!! WOO HOO!!!

We (well, OK, WILL) is converting our spare bedroom into a craft studio for lil' ole me! How fantastic is that (and how lucky am I to be getting my own room?!)

Yesterday he...

* emptied the room
* ripped up the carpet and underlay (goodbye scabby, horrible coloured and sun faded carpet!)
* took off the skirting boards
* sanded the walls, ceiling and woodwork down
* emulsioned the ceiling

Today he...

* undercoated the woodwork ready for glossing
* applied 2 coats of white emulsion to hide the 2-tone blue paint underneath

I...

* went shopping!! HAHA.

Where I bought ...

* a new halogen 3-light fitting for the ceiling
* some more cheap white emulsion for undercoating
* got my paint - Dulux 'Almost Oyster'

Tomorrow (Monday) night he will sand down the walls again if there are any blemishes still there and it will get it's final undercoat. Will won't start decorating with colour until the walls are totally smooth and white.

Tuesday will have it's first coat of colour put on. Wednesday, if required, will see a final coat of colour.

Thursday will be glossing of the windowsill, doorframe and door.

Being the kind little soul that I am, he can have Friday night off! HAHA!!

The weekend will see the new wooden floor put down and the new skirting boards fitted and waxed.

Then.... I get go go shopping AGAIN for the furniture Woo! Can't wait until it's finished.

I've told him that I'll move my craft stuff from the dining upstairs myself, as otherwise he'll see just how much stash I actually have! HAHA!

I'll post some photos soon.