Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

How cold is this Arctic weather? Tom did get back to school, but only for one day, Wed/Thurs and today its been closed. Work was also closed yesterday and today so I'm not back either. Pete's struggled in every day to the Uni though. Its not that we have a LOT of snow in Blyth (although a lot more than most folks under 30 can remember!) but the surrounding areas have had lots, the roads are treacherous and lots of folks who commute here to work (like Teachers, Office and Nursery staff from outside of Blyth) can't get here so the schools and Sure Start have had to close. Even my Dentists appointment was cancelled on Wednesday as she was snowed in where she lived!

Tom has so far enjoyed his extra snowdays and been playing out - I walked into Blyth Wed and Thurs to do a little bit of essential shopping (insulation for the rabbit, bird food and some bits we were running low on) and it was lovely, white and crisp snow and bright sunshine - however I would not like to be driving in it, and we didn't go to our dance class last night as the temps had plummeted and there was a warning for ice on the roads. Today its so very cold neither of us has set foot outdoors. I wrapped the rabbit hutch in extra layers of bubble wrap and gave her extra bedding and hay on Wed and more again last night as we were forecast to be -4 degrees during the night. We were also forecast for more snow today - lots of it - but so far I've seen none, I'm guessing its going to come overnight....

So I made the most of the unexpected time off work to do some crafting and play with some of my new SU! stamp sets I got before Christmas, and the Sale-A-Bration ones that came this week. I've uploaded these to my SU! blog with details of products used etc, so if you want to know any details such as which stamp sets I've used or what colour inks - please see here

Happy New year!

Brrrrr! we still have the snow from before Christmas and overnight New years eve it added a MUCH thicker layer to it. We went for our traditional new years walk on New Years day in glorious thick white snow! We drove to Atlee Park in Bedlington and walked along the river, the path was quite well trodden by dog walkers although the open areas were still very deep and almost overed my wellies in some bits. Pete and Tom spent most of the time chucking snowballs.










Back to school Tuesday for Tom and back to work Thursday for me, so time to enjoy the snow for a few days yet.

Sale-A-Bration is back!!

It's Sale-A-Bration time again at Stampin' Up!, and friends, fresh ideas, and free product is what it's all about!

Every year Stampin' Up! gives customers, hostesses, and new demonstrators the opportunity to earn fantastic, FREE, limited-edition products they'll enjoy for years to come.

Here's how Sale-A-Bration works:

Spend
When you spend £45 on Stampin' Up! merchandise, you'll receive a free Sale-A-Bration reward. There's no limit--for every £45 you spend, you can select another FREE Sale-A-Bration reward!

Host
When you host a workshop of at least £300 (before tax and shipping), you'll receive a free Sale-A-Bration reward in addition to all of the regular hostess benefits!

Join
During Sale-A-Bration, anyone who joins as a demonstrator can choose any stamp set--a value of up to £38.95--from our current Idea Book and Catalogue.

The Sale-A-Bration promotion starts on 30 December 2009 and runs through 28 February 2010, so don't miss your chance to earn free limited edition products! Email me to book your workshop or learn more about this promotion. You can view the Sale-A-Bration brochure online here.

Some Christmas stuff - a little on the late side!!

With starting a new job I don't seem to have the time to actually MAKE things any more - or blog for that matter! I barely made any Christmas cards this year - only a handful for a swap in November using the fab Tree Trimmings stamp set from SU! - which then sadly went missing in the post.


I also made place cards for the Christmas table using this set for a challenge on ILWS forum.


Then I made those all important thank you cards for sending after Christmas using some of the new Bella Bleu pattern papers from SU! and SU! punches to make toppers - quick, simple but pretty.

Retreat weekend.

I spent the weekend on the Suffolk/Essex border in a fabulous hotel called Stoke By Nayland Country Club at a scrapping retreat run by the lovely Mel and Jill - I was teaching, and these are the projects we made in my 3 classes over the weekend: layout class, minibook class and Christmas home decor class.

Sunsets at sea.

Every night we had the most gorgeous sunsets, often while we were in port but a couple of times while sailing, here are a few of my fave pics: Cranes in marina di Carrara, Sailing to Palamos from Corsica, and over the Spanish mainland as we leave Palamos.

Palma - and some pics of the ship.

Some of our fave places on Destiny - Blakes, The Clipper bar, The Oklahoma lounge, The promenade deck, the Pool deck and grill plus the Towel animal our cabin steward created for us on the last night.










We embarked and disembarked in Palma - a marina full of very expensive yachts and cruisers as well as being a working port.

Fifth port of call - Palamos

From here we went to Barcelona for the day - it was overcast but still hot - and though Barcelona was fabulous, we didn't enjoy the long coach journey there and back and we didn't feel that we had got much out of the trip as we saw most things from the bus! We did get an hour to wander Las Ramblas and a stop at Sagrada Familia though (although Sagrada Familia was a building site and not easy to see much with all the cranes round it).

Fourth port - Ajaccio, Corsica.

Very hot, very pretty, and very relaxing! We stayed round the port and enjoyed the beach and the food and entertainment on the ship.

Second Port - Marrina Di Carrara

Our second port of call was in Italy - Marina di Carrara - not the prettiest of places! but the weather was very good, and the marble mountains behind were very striking. From here you could take a trip to Florence and Pisa - but we stayed local and went up the hill to visit the town of Carrara.





Third port of call was Civitaveccia - from where we went to Rome - our most fave day of the holiday as we got to walk lots and see loads of things.

Cruise photos!

Cruising the Med in October isn't always going to be fab weather - but we were incredibly lucky and had the most wonderful weather all week. Except for the arrival day which was cool, wet and windy - we had temps of between 25-30 degrees every day. I'm not going to write up everything we did, it would take far too long - but here are a few of my fave photos from the week - starting with our first port of call - Villafranche - from there we visited Monaco.

Villefranche:





Monaco:

Brand new Stampin' Up! catalogue

The all new catalogue for 2009-2010 is online now - follow the link in the sidebar to browse online or email me to purchase a copy or place an order.