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