Look what rolled into town........and a Happy Christmas to you all.

Last week the Coca Cola lorry rolled into Ipswich Town centre. Sadly I was there in the morning so missed the spectacular sight of it lit up at night.

Well it's Christmas Eve. I can now say bring it on I am offically ready for Christmas, if I've forgotten anything now it's tough! I'm on a night shift tonight so won't leave off until 8 tomorrow morning. I've got my antler head gear so when I take the residents their cup of tea in the morning I'll look a little bit festive. I'll be blasting those Christmas Carols out at 7am too..........they will get in the spirit of things. LOL
Tomorrow will be quite a quiet low key time in our house. Aaron is in Cyprus, Tim will be here to open his pressies then he's off to his girlfriend's and Emily has to work 12-4, so dinner will just be Andy, me and the cat. One good thing we can watch what we like on tv..........Downton Abbet, Doctor Who and Call the Midwives will be our main watch.................love them all, oh yes and Open All Hours.
Well I have a huge pile of ironing to do before cooking lunch, then I shall chill until I leave for work at 7pm.
I'd like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and here's hoping 2014 is a good one.

                        Janina xx

ps. The first Bramford crop of 2014 is on Saturday 4th January 9-5pm.

Afternoon Tea....Posh Style!

As most of you know I work as a night carer in a local residential home for the elderly. Two of our residents who were sisters died within the past year and as a thank you for the care we gave them both, one of the sister's daughter's donated money for the staff to go out and have afternoon tea and this is where we went;

Hintlesham Hall an Elizabethian House near Ipswich. Rather posh, but very elegant. We spent a lovely two hours eating sandwiches, scones and cakes, drinking tea and chatting. By the time we came out it was dark and here is how it looks at night.;

It looks stunning lite up at night with the christmas trees.
Talking of trees I put up our tree last week. Here it is;

Just think two weeks today and it'll all be over! We'll have eaten far too much and some drunk too much too.
I'm trying to wrap a few presents each day as doing them all in one day is a killer on my back, I just can't do it anymore.
Saturday is Bramford Crop day 9am-6pm. It'll be a full house with so far 30 ladies coming along. Prizes to be won during the day and a big main prize to be won by one lucky lady........she'll think Christmas has come early! The first crop of 2014 will be on 4th January.
Well I have a pile of ironing awaiting me, then pressies to wrap and then I'm working on the March crop kit.......yes you did read that right I'm ahead of myself.
Well have a good week.


                                  Janina xx

5 weeks to Christmas...aghhhhh....ba humbug!

Yes 5 weeks to day it's Christmas Eve! Not a nice thought IMHO. I've started my Christmas shopping, we've set a date to do the rest at Lakeside and today I got my Christmas card supply box from the loft so I can make a start in writing them out. I'll take them to work at the weekend as it's my weekend to work and hopefully I'll get quite a few done. I've made quite a few as well and I found the ones I'd lost that I made a few months ago, never of thought of looking for them where I actually found them. LOL
I had my birthday recently and asked for money as I wanted to buy a Raskog Trolley from Ikea for my craft room and here it is.

It's quite big and holds loads, most of it came off my desk. It's on wheels too so moves around well.
Saturday I've a table at the local WI's Christmas Bazaar at Lorraine Victory Hall, Ship Lane, Bramford from 1-4pm if you are in the area. I've been busy making Christmas cards and all occasion cards to sell.

There'll be lots of different stalls there so come along if you're about.
The Bramford Christmas Crop is on Saturday 14th December 9am-6pm. Think I've got some of our ladies talking trying to find out what the big main prize of the day is.......ha ha, no one but me knows! Lets just say who ever is the lucky person to go home with it will be very pleased..............there's also loads of other prizes up for grabs throughout the day.

Well it's now 5.09pm and I've lots to do before I leave for work at 7pm.

Have a great week.

             Janina xx

A busy weekend ahead.

Nothing to show you as I've been busy and still am making Christmas Cards and other cards as I'm doing a Christmas Craft Fair on Saturday 23rd November. It's at our local hall Lorraine Victory Hall Bramford Ipswich 1-4pm. Come along if you are in the area.
It's my weekend in at work, so I'm working tonight and Sunday night. No sleep for me tomorrow as I'm off to Tina's craft day at Bulmer Nr Sudbury, which I am looking forward to. I hope to get more cards made. In the evening Andy and I are out for a meal with his work collegues as one of them has now retired. Sunday I'm hoping number one son calls round......well he needs to drop off his car. He's off to Cyprus to work for the winter as his Thomson work has now finished until March, so I will have his car until he returns.
Next Saturday it's the monthly Papermaze crop. The Bramford December/Christmas crop is on Saturday 14th December, a week later than normal. 9am-6pm.............should be a good day, prizes to be won all day too.
I've started my Christmas shopping, got a few pressies anyway. Just trying to decide when we go to Lakeside to do the main shop.
Did you see Lou Collins on Create & Craft? Didn't she do well, I emailed in and had my email read out on yesterday mornings 9am show.!


Well have a good weekend.


                 Janina xx

A wet start to the week!

Ugh, rain, rain and more rain! It stopped long enough yesterday for me to get some washing dry and then the heavens opened.
Saturday I went to Karen Curd's monthly craft day. Karen does Stampin Up and started the monthly craft day where peeps would have a selection of Karen's lovely card designs to make. I go to scrap as it's somewhere I actually get things done and on Saturday I did 3 layouts! Whoop, whoop. So here is what I did.

The first layouts is made out of all scraps I had in my stash. I do try and use up scraps for layouts. The photo is Emily when we visited the Harry Potter Studio Tour last year and so is the second layout. The third layout is of me when we visited Rhodes during our cruise. Rhodes Old Town is stunning, well worth a visit but if you can't stand the heat don't go in August as it was scorching hot!
Last Wednesday I went to a workshop at Papermaze run by Lou......if you ever get the chance to take part in one of Lou's workshops you'll love it. I'm booked on her Christmas card workshop in November, check out www.papermaze.co.uk for details of their workshops there's allsorts going on over the next 3 months including Carol running one making a Tando advent calender.
The BIG prize for the Bramford Christmas crop has just arrived! The crop will be on Saturday 14th December running from 9am-6pm.......prizes to be won throughout the day.
Forgot here's the layout I did at Lou's workshop.

Well, must go get the hoovering done and then I intend making some cards.....probably Christmas ones.

Have a good week.

           Janina xx

My Creative Sketches September Sketch Challenge

I often take a peek over at www.mycreativesketches.bolgspot.co.uk and decided to enter the September sketch challenge, just hoping I've managed to link it up properly........I'm not computer savy so it's hit n miss.
The photo is of Andy when we visited Rhodes Old Town recently, he was trying to escape the heat!


                     Janina xx

A busy weekend......

Last weekend was a busy one. Friday Andy and I went to the wedding of Andrew and Sandra, the youngest son of Ann and Kevin who Andy stayed with the days he worked in Peterborough......was meant to be a short term arrangement but it lasted nearly 15yrs in the end! The Wedding was lovely from start to finish and as Kevin is a vicar he actually married the couple.

We got home around midnight and Saturday was going to be an early start as it was Ally Pally day.......
I picked Liz up at 6.30am and then Beryl. It was a hastle free journey down to London and after our normal toilet stop at the Enfield Sainsburys we arrived at AP around 9am. We had a lovely day, spent lots between us came away exhausted but very happy with our purchases. Here's what I bought......

Lots of cardstock from Limetree Crafts, some gorgeous stamps from Inkylicious and House of Zandra plus odds n ends.
I also watched Leonie demoing, she's very talented, darft as a brush but lovely and so down to earth.

Got home around 9.45pm, shattered. Sunday was a full on day too as we had Andy's mum and dad, his Aunt Janet who was over from USA, Aunt Maureen and Tim's girlfriend Fran coming for roast dinner, then Andy's other Aunt Rosie and Uncle Clarry coming for tea. I was so pleased the huge piece of beef I bought cooked lovely and was so tender! So Monday was a house work and chill out day for me!
Here's a couple of layouts I've done in the past week, the first is a crop kit for the Bramford monthly crop.

This is when Andy and I visited Jerusalem, we're at the Western Wall on our recent cruise holiday.

This photo is of Emily and Hannah when we visited Harry Potter Tour last year.
Well I've to go finish off my ironing, then I'm going to do a bit of crafting. It's my weekend in at work so I'll be off at 7pm, might take the Christmas cards I started to make yesterday with me to finish off. I made about 20 over a month ago and for the life of me I don't know where I've put them!!!! LOL My craft room needs abit of a sort out, the floor is covered with bits n pieces......does it sound familiar?
Anyway, next Saturday is the monthly Bramford crop 9am-5pm all welcome.

Have a great weekend.

                    Janina xx

I'm back.........just wish we had booked for two weeks!

Got home early hours Tuesday morning after spending a fantastic week on board Thomson Celebration Cruise ship. You could not fault anything. Cabins were cleaned 3 times a day, choccies left on your pillow at night( the kids liked them when we brought them home), food on tap 24 hours a day and lovely it was too. Crew on board could not do enough for you and the entertainment team were very good. As I said it was meant to be a cruise to Egypt and the Holyland, sadly the Egypt part was cancelled and we docked in Rhodes instead, which I might add was very lovely. We got off ship and spent the morning wandering round the Old Town....very pretty. Wednesday we were at sea all day and I got sunburnt....ouch! It hurt! It was soooo hot you couldn't sit in it for long, so we would sit along the side decks as they were more shaded. Thursday we docked in Ashdod Israel and went on an all day excursion to Jerusalem, beautiful place to visit so clean.

Andy standing at Mount of Olives and looking over Jerusalem. We also visited the Western Wall and placed prayers in the wall itself.

The wall itself was not very wide but very tall, a serene place to visit. Next we went to Bethlehem, which is divided from Jerusalem by the wall of Palestine.

It has check points and boarder guards too. Bethlehem we visited the old town and the church of The Nativity.

Doesn't look much from the outside but is stunningly beautiful inside, the photo was taken from Manger Square.
Saturday we visited Larnaca Cyprus, very hot and we stayed for a couple of hours in the morning because by lunch time it was far too hot to be walking about, the sweat just dripped off you.
Sunday our next port of call was Alanya Turkey were it is said the castle in the port was a gift from Mark Anthony to Cleopatra. The view was again stunning. We had an excursion to Side and saw the temple of Apollo and it was then onto the waterfall of Manavgat.

Monday we docked back in Marmaris Turkey were we left the ship at 12noon to get our flight home. We had a jam packed week where we travelled over 1000 nautical miles and visited 4 different countries, took over 400 photos and have some lovely memories. Just wish we had booked for two weeks not one, I can see now why people get hooked on cruises. Ok so we didn't get to do the Nile cruise we originally booked(maybe next year !), but we are so glad we did this cruise.

Well I think I've let you all into a sneak peek of our holiday, just to say if you want holiday ideas try Thomson Cruises, they know how to do it.


                    Janina xx

Today's the day......

I'm almost packed , as we are off on our long awaited holiday today. We catch the 1.43pm train to London and then onto Gatwick where were are booked into a hotel for tonight, as our flight is at 8.45am tomorrow....didn't want to get up at some un earthly time in the morning to travel down to Gatwick, just realised we'll still need to be up around 5am to get the shuttle bus to airport!!!!! It'll be a lonnng day.
The Egypt part of the holiday has been cancelled and we will now be going to Rhodes and then staying two days in Israel instead of one day. What ever I'm looking forward to it and all those wonderful photo ops.
It'll be a packed week of sight seeing and photo taking.LOL

Well until next week.

             Janina xx

ps Had a lovely day at the Papermaze crop yesterday.

Nelly has gone....!!!!

Nelly being my car! Infact all our cars have been called Nelly mine was Nelly 6, a Vauxhall Astra which we bought in 2002 when she was a year old. When hubby bought a new car in 2007, I kept Nelly so that all the 3 children could learn to drive, well the last Emily has just passed her test (first time too) so Nelly has now gone onto pastures new.....well one of DS friends infact as she still has life in the old girl and is a pleasure to drive. It'll take a bit of getting used to going back to juggling one car but the cost of running two cars has got silly. I've told hubby I need it for Ally Pally twice a year and to go to my monthly crops.
Well two weeks today and we'll be cruising from Turkey to Alexandria in Egypt....I'm so excited now, 3 more nights to work and then nearly 3 weeks off, heaven! Ordered our spending money today.
Bramford monthly crop was on Saturday, another good turnout of ladies scrapping and card making. Septembers crop is Saturday 7th 9am-5pm. All welcome. I've finished the October crop kit today, we'll be using Glitz 'Sunshine in my Soul' papers. Novembers kit we'll be using Teresa Collins papers which is a brand we have'nt used before.

This is a recent layout I did using the freebie papers from Scrapbook  Magazine issue 73 I think. A really cheap LO and one I was pleased with. It's a photo of Emily when she got her GCSE results.
Well DS 2 will be in soon from work wanting his tea.

                        Janina xx

It's not a Nile Cruise anymore..........cancelled!

We had that dreaded phone call from Thomsons on Tuesday to say our Nile Cruise has been cancelled due to all the unrest in Cairo and Luxor. Talk about gutted as this was going to be a special holiday(and our first in 8 years) for our 25th wedding anniversay. Anyway with alot of umming and arhing we've now rebooked and are going on a cruise Egypt and the Holy Land taking in stops at Turkey, Egypt, Cyprus and Israel. While in Israel we've going on a day excursion to Jerusalem and Bethlehem which I'm really looking forward to. e still might get to see the pyramids if it's safe to do so. Also an excursion in Alanya Turkey to see the Manavgat Waterfall and other places of interest along the way.

We now fly out on the 19th instead of the 28th, so we won't be away for our anniversary but hey ho at least we're going on holiday.
I've had to rebook our train tickets to London too and because Greater Anglia wanted £10 a ticket each way to change the days of travel I just rebooked which was cheaper and we've decided to go to London for the day on the 28th and to take in a show.....Les Mis!

So plenty to look forward to in August now. Yesterday it was debatable as we couldn't decided on where to go, Europe was a no no for me so the other choice would of been America and possible Florida.
Change of subject are you enjoying the weather? It's gorgeous and my tan is coming along just fine.LOL
I'm not liking night time though as I keep having broken sleep because I'm too hot.
Well lots to do.
Work this weekend......

                                          Janina xx

This is your Captain speaking!

A photo of Aaron taking controls of the plane, thankfully the plane was parked on the runway at the time with it's engines off.....LOL

Aaron loves his new job as Cabin Crew for Thomsons.
It was the Bramford monthly crop yesterday, one week later than normal. It was a lovely day with 28 ladies coming along to crop and card make. I think they all enjoyed themselves. It was a scorcher sun wise yesterday too, the heat hit you when you ventured out of the hall.
I'm on holiday now until Friday, yipee. I intend doing some crafting this week and just chillin' as it's been a challenging couple of weeks at work, so I'll recharge my batteries and be ready for a weekend of work from Friday. It won't be long then until our holiday to Egypt........stop laughing all of you we're not going to Cario! We're off to Luxor. I've had the injection so I'm going!!!!

Anyway, have a good week.

              Janina x

Passed first attempt.

My daughter Emily took her driving test today and passed first attempt with only 1 minor, so proud of her. Her brother Tim thinks it's a fix.LOL Here she is getting rid of those L plates.

Sadly she'll only have until September to use my car as we are parting with it. We only kept it so all 3 children could learn to drive and pass their tests, so now she's served her purpose. The old girl has served us well as we've had her for 12 years now, but it's too expensive to keep two cars on the road.
Here's another photo I took of Emily today.........texting on her phone.

It's the Bramford crop this coming Saturday, 9am-5pm. Looking forward to catching up with everyone.


                             Janina xx

Summer Weather At Last !

Wow what a change in weather. It's so hot out side today, I've put my new patio set out! It was lovely yesterday too but I didn't really see much of that until the drive home, as I spent the day at Bulmer nr Sudbury at one of Tina Kelson's craft days. I had a fab day all credit goes to Tina. Looking forward to next one which should be in October. You chose the project goodie bag you wanted to do, cards or birdhouse, I chose the birdhouse and this is what I came up with..........

Tina bought them from the MDF Man and they are money boxes so the label attached to the roof near the slot says 'Stash Fund'. Isn't it so cute.
Hope to finish off the two scrapbook layouts I started yesterday this coming week.
On Saturday it's our Church Village Fete (from 1.30pm in Bramford, Suffolk........the car park you park in for the monthly crop) It's normally a good well supported afternoon. This means the monthly Bramford crop will be the 2nd Saturday of the month...the 13th.
I've some really exciting news to tell you all but sadly that will have to wait cos at the moment my lips are sealed, which is soooo hard!
Well I'm off to catch a few rays before the sun says goodbye for today.
Have a great week.

                        Janina xx

Middle of June already!

Isn't this year just flying by! People will soon be saying that dreaded 'C' word..............Christmas! Ugh!
Tomorrow I'm off to the monthly Papermaze crop, I do so enjoy my day there with friends I have made over the past 8 years, yes I have now been going to Papermaze for 8 years. It's such a lovely friendly crop and apart from the Bramford crop one of the best crops in Suffolk. The same as the Bramford crop Papermaze has no silly rules or regulations that make people uncomfortable.
Anyway I've been busy the past week stamping, cutting and sticking to come up with these gorgeous Prima Mixed Media Dolls. They are soooo cute and fun to do.( I blame Karen B for bringing a couple of the stamps along to the Bramford crop, now I'm hooked. I bought the first complete set and now have the latest release set winging there way to me.) If you want to buy any of the stamps check out www.papermaze.co.uk as they have them.

                                             This is how they start out one you stamp them.

                                                                  Aren't they so cute!

Each doll is approx 7.5" tall so quite big. I intend making tag cards with them using kraft card as the base for my tag.
Because we've had a bit of sun, where I here you shout. I went and bought a garden patio set on Tuesday, it still sits in my dining room in the boxes as the sun seams to have gone walkabout. Here's the set I got.

It was good value too £69.99 from Argos the same in the Range was £129.99! Bargin, or not if we have no summer.LOL
Well I'm off to make a coffee then sort out what I'm taking to the crop tomorrow.
Have a great weekend.

                       Janina xx

Where's the Summer?

Have you wondered that too, I mean where is our summer? Tomorrow we are going to pay the balance on our holiday, it's approx 12 weeks to go and Andy and I will be jetting off to Egypt for our Nile cruise and 40+degree heat....got to be better than being constantly cold here!
Saturday it's the Bramford monthly crop, looking forward to seeing all our ladies and catching up with everyone. I've done some crafting today......the crop kit for the August crop is now done, just need to give it to Di to put the kits together. The September crop Di has ordered some new Glitz design papers which I think our ladies will like.
My middle son Tim has just spent 10 days on holiday in Rhodes with his girlfriend Fran, here's a photo of them taken at their hotel.

Fran goes really brown, Tim normally goes red, but he did actually come back with a decent tan.

The new phone, well I'm slowly getting to grips with it. I did go back to the Carphone Warehouse and got them to set up my email account etc as I hadn't a clue what or how to do it.
Well I'm gasping for a coffee so best go.


Have a great weekend.

                        Janina xx

My bargin buy!

I like browsing the charity shops in Ipswich and yesterday I got my best bargin buy ever a lovely deep red Harrods bag for £3 ! Couldn't believe the price, the bag is in A1 condition too, here's a photo of it.

I've also got some layouts that I have done recently, the first is the one I started at Papermaze crop and finished it off today.

This one is the one I did designed by Lou at Lou's workshop at Papermaze. The photo is of my DD Emily a couple of years ago at her school leavers prom..........goodness doesn't seem two years ago she left school.

Finally a couple of pics of Aaron taken by the offical photographer at his recent 'Wings Presentation Day'.
He's enjoying his new job as cabin crew for Thomsons, been to several places so far in Greece and Spain, shame it's only an hours stop-over at each destination!

And finally a photo of my new gadget, I've now gone high tech phone! I might regret this move if I can't work out how to use the flaming thing. LOL I'm useless with anything technical so it's going to be quite challenging. Glad I'm at work over the weekend as you know what I'll be doing during the night...apart from making sure our 13 residents are looked after.

It's the Nokia Lumia 520.......................oh the joys.


Changing the subject, hasn't it turned cold again. Just hope it brightens up for this coming bank holiday weekend, not that I'm doing anything as I said earlier it's my weekend in at work.
Last night I spent a lovely evening at Papermaze and Lou's first card class, it was very good and we made 3 lovely and very different cards. This afternoon I spent making more of the step design we did and am very pleased with the results.
Next Saturday 1st June it's the Bramford monthly crop 9am - 5pm. The May crop NSD was a big success.
Well I'm debating whether to get that new phone out of it's packaging........................................or maybe not. I've to ring O2 and transfer my number over, ah pants it can wait 'til tomorrow morning.


Anyway, have a great weekend hope to see some of you at the crop next weekend.





                                          Janina xx