My Ally Pally trip

Well Saturday morning dawned I was up at 5.40am after about 3hours sleep! I just could'nt sleep Friday night, well Saturday morning really as I did'nt get to bed until around 1am and do you think I could get to sleep, could I heck.LOL Anyway I was picking Liz up by 6.40am and then onto picking up Beryl and Tracey.............a quick drive through McD's at Ravenswood to get Tracey a coffee and Mcmuffin and it was onto the A14 then A12 to London. We had a straight run down no hold ups so arrived at AP by 8.45am. We all had a lovely day buying lots of lovely goodies, mine stash haul are in the two photos above. I got all what was on my list and came home with lots of money still in my purse, so I was very pleased. I'm hoping to use some of my new dies and rubber stamps this week. I also spent a lovely couple of hours with Shari who I met on UKS. I ended up being her personal shopper. LOL We arrived back in Ipswich around 7.30pm, tired but happy. We did our normal stop at the Chelmsford/A12 Mcdonalds.
Now got to start saving my money for the June show run by The Stamp Hut in Bury St Edmunds.
Have a good week, I'm going to be in my craft room in between house work!

Janina x

Easter already

Three layouts that a done awhile ago the first one is of my two sons Aaron and Tim. The second one is of my SIL and nephew who was my pageboy and the third is of me and hubby on our wedding day, does'nt seem possible we've been married 24yrs this year. The card is what I did for a feature in the Creativity mag using the Papermania Portabello Rd papers.
Have you bought all your Easter eggs? I've just got the ones for Saturdays Bramford crop to get and I'm all done.
Got a fish n chip lunch at the in-laws tomorrow, bought from the chippy so a real treat.
Saturday it's the April Bramford crop 9am-5pm, so looking forward to that too. Next Saturday I'm off to Ally Pally with Liz, Beryl and Tracey, can't wait. My shopping list is growing, so I hope to get some of it if not all of it.
Been busy cardmaking the past month as I've some tabletop sales coming up and needed to top up (aswell as use up.LOL) my stock. I've enjoyed this splurge of making and have only done scrapbooking at crops. But I've lots of stash I need to use up and cardmaking has helped. I've also had a good sort out and sold tools etc I don't use, I must try to buy what I'm going to use in future, I am getting better..........slowly. I find I'm using my Spellbinder dies alot lately, there's a couple of new ones out I'd like to get.

Well my craft room is calling! Hope you have a lovely Easter weekend.

Janina xx

It's like a Number 8 bus.......

Had another death at work last week when I was on with the same carer as the previous death, this one was totally unexpected, so totally different from the last one, as my title says you wait ages for a Number 8 bus then two turn up at once! 16 years as a carer and no deaths then two in a fortnight, I was named the Grim Reaper at work when I left off Saturday morning.......................we've also had a horrendous sickness bug at work for over a week, it's gone through all the residents and is now starting on the staff...........oh what joys. Still I do love my job and enjoy what I do.
Has'nt the weather been lovely, it's been so warm it's t-shirt weather outside. You know the weather has changed as you could hear lawn mowers going over the weekend, my hubby cut our lawns today, don't you just love the smell of freshly mowed grass, I do.
Have you seen that the Warner Bro studios in Herts where the Harry Potter movies were filmed are going to open up for studio tours? Well as my hubby, me and daughter Emily are HP fans I've booked us tickets to go in July, can't wait................I'm also thinking of all that scrapbooking I'll be able to do afterwards! It was funny when hubby and I went to the cinema to see the last two films, we were the youngest ones there in a full cinema.LOL Everyone else was over 60yrs.
Well hope you all have a good week.

Janina x

Bramford 2012 Crop dates etc

Just thought I'd list the 2012 Bramford Crop dates on here so here we go;

April Sat 7th 9-5pm, May NSD Sat 5th 9-8pm, June Sat 2nd 9-5pm, July Sat 14th 9-5pm,
Aug Sat 4th 9-8pm, Sept Sat 1st 9-5pm, Oct Sat 6th 9-5pm, Nov Sat 3rd 9-5pm and the Christmas crop Dec Sat 8th 9-8pm.
All crops cost £5, monthly page kit an optional extra. Shop on site( Crafts and Candlelight) also a table for anyone to sell unwanted stash.
Light refreshments on tap all day, use of Cricut and Big Shot.
Venue; The Church Room, Ship Lane, Bramford, Ipswich, Suffolk.

Went to Papermaze Crop yesterday and had a lovely time. The shop is now open.....yipeeee, for Vanessa it's been a long haul since the original fire in October of last year but she's got there. The shop looks fab, lots of restocks aswell as some lovely new goodies. Vanessa has plans to run workshops and classes during the day, so watch this space....I keep trying to get Lou Collins to do some scrapbooking classes as her layouts are fab and she uses different techniques.
I also sat next to a lovely lady yesterday( you aswell Carol LOL) called Lynne Cooper, she lives in Kent and was in Suffolk for the weekend so came to the crop. I have met Lynne before when she came to the all day crop at Henley back in 2010. So big wave to you Lynne.
Happy Mother's day to all you mothers and nannas out there. I've had one card and pressie today, a nice pair of indoor slippers from Emily. Tim no doubt will give me his pressie when he gets back from playing football..............Aaron well what can I say, no doubt I'll get a text message sometime today. LOL
I'm at work tonight 8pm-8am tomorrow, hopefully it'll be a good night! I can hope. Friday night was quite from midnight onwards.
The sun is lovely today, I've just put out one load of washing and have got another lot doing. They threatened rain all over the weekend so I'm making the most of it.

Well hope you all have a good week.

Janina x

It's been a funny few days.....

Hi all, hope you are having a good week. Mine's been a funny one , well it has since last Friday night really. It was my weekend of nights in work we had one lady coming to the end of her life, two others falling one quite badly so needing a paramedic. Then Tuesday night we had a death. In the 16years I've been doing care work it's the first death I've had to deal with while being on shift, I know I've been very lucky. Thankfully the lady died very peacefully and it was a blessing really. It was my first in laying someone out, a strange feeling but I treated it like she was just sleeping and it was the last good thing I and my work mate could do for her. My first in handling a dead body.I'm just glad I was on shift with my workmate who's an experienced carer who has dealt with death several times, it does help.
I'm hoping tomorrow night at work will be an uneventful one!
On a cheery note the sun is shining, my washing machine is on the go, I've a pile of ironing to do, the bedrooms need hoovering and I've a 12 x 12v shadow box frame LO to get finished today. I've been asked to do these as memory boxes for residents in a care home in Ipswich, not the one I work at.
Did you see my two page spead in the lastest Creativity mag? It's using the Papermania Portobello Rd range. I had to do a LO and a card.
Well I must go as I've loads to do, I'd also like to nip to the new Matalan that has opened in Ipswich today.(in Ranleigh Rd)


Janina xx

My computer is back and I'm up and running!

At long last I have my computer back from the menders. It's been away 3 long weeks. I have been using my son's laptop but just can'nt get on with it. Thankfully all my documents and folders have been saved and reinstalled, rubbish has been cleaned off so loads of memory now aswell as everything being so much quicker.
It's the Bramford crop tomorrow, so looking forward to that though I have a 12hr wake shift to do tonight so will be a bit glassy eyed at crop tomorrow as I'll have been up since 8am this morning.
Good news Papermaze should be up and running and the shop open in the next week, they have loads of restocks but also lots of yummy new stuff.............I've broke the bank just looking at what's coming out of the boxes when we've unpacked them! I've made my shopping list.LOL
Well I have a pile of ironing that needs doing so best go do that.

Hope you have a lovely weekend.

Janina xx

I'm freezing!

Don't know about you but the past couple of weeks I just can't keep warm. The snow in our back garden is still as thick as it was the first day it snowed, so it just proves how cold it's been this past week for it not to melt..............does look pretty though.

Using my son's laptop as we've at long last taken our sick computer to be fixed, hoping to hear from them tomorrow. Might be a case of cheaper to buy a new tower and quicker. I don't like laptops, just can't get the hang of them.!!!

Just to let all my Bramford crop challenge girls know I've finished my frame, I am getting ahead of myself even made a start on the book, well glued some pages together.LOL

The above photo is of our cat Guss as you can see he likes the cosy life!! He's as darft as a brush he loves chasing falling snow and will sit in the pouring rain, we think he might have been dropped on his head as a kitten! He is a lovely cat though, turned up on our door as a stray 3 years ago, vet reckoned he was approx 5 years old at the time. He's a big old boy too, massive great paws.

Well hope you all have a good week.

Janina xx