Halloween anyone?

Now I must admit Halloween is not a big thing at our house, and it's good luck if we actually have anything to give the random child who knocks on our door at Halloween.  Well, I guess it could just also be an excuse to have chocolate in the house!

I do however find I love looking at different crafty things to get ideas...and I noticed on one fav blogs, the   Bakerella link has some amazing things.  Just gorgeous, but way too much work on them for my liking, and being perishable you eat - so you can't admire your handiwork for awhile.

Anyhoo, I love the spiders complete with their own webs...cute creepy!

What a day!

So went up to Mama's to celebrate her birthday, and what a day.  Fabulous weather, family, a feast for lunch and lots of laughs and good company.  A lovely day for all.

Had a bit of a surprise through the week as Mum gave me a pen.  The surprise being the "fairy cape of flowers" won me the best dressed prize (although it was modeled by Mama on the day).  Thanks Ladies who Dress as Fairies in the Park - I loved it ;)

And a pic for the end of a great weekend.  When I got my groceries yesterday, I saw these snapdragons....so pretty and such a beautiful colour.  So you can enjoy them too!

Ta da...

So finally got some craft cupboard pics to show you.  This has worked out great, and I've drawers to spare, so as far as storage goes  - it should grow with me for awhile.

Here it is, (starting with the befores),  a hand-me down cupboard with it's latest paint job. A couple of years ago Dad helped me repaint it, and we used leftover paint.  The trunk on top stores my Chrissy Decs - it was made over to match at the same time.  We put a chalkboard on one side....great for countdowns and quick ideas.

And drum roll for the reveal....in all it's uber organised glory THE craft cupboard

Loads of 2" deep drawers

Ribbon storage system by Da

Stamp rail, and spice racks for bottles + a couple of fairies.

A huge thanks to Da for coming and helping me, well OK it ws more like me watching and him doing for the most part.  It looks AWESOME, and will be great to use.  Thanks you're the best :)

A couple of cards to show you...

Last weekend, my Da (Dad) and I set about making over my craft cupboard.  It was organised OK, but the space could have been used a little better.  I found some drawer inserts to fit into the cupboard, and Da was going to make some shelves to fill in the gap.  The result... TOTAL AWESOMENESS - my Da is soooo handy and clever!

Now I'm glad I had pre purchased the "inserts" as our hot water system went to the big hot water system in the sky last week...so the unexpected cost pushed my other projects back down the priority list. 

I thought I'd have a piccy to post, but upon downloading some photos, I apparently haven't taken one yet.  So I'll endeavour to do that this week, and post next weekend.

As I had to empty my craft cupboard of all my treasures, I found some toys I hadn't played with in a while.  This afternoon, I made up a couple of cards...so.... here they are:

This actually looks better in life, sadly the photo doesn't do it justice.  I was really keen to add ribbon, but it just looked too over the top.  The embossing I used, has a bit of sparkle in it and the brads also have a bit of sparkle. The green "bits" are actually 2x side on flowers, and the green is the base, they are popped up to give some depth.  I wanted it to look like a bunch of flowers.  Should you decide to do something similar to this - be warned there is a lot of cutting out.  

STAMPS: Stampin' Up Reason to Smile / Short and Sweet
INKS: Stampin' Up Whisper White / Pink Pirouette / Rose Red, and Fabrico Black
ACCESSORIES: Stamp World Irridescent Sparkle Emboss Powder + Heat Gun, Stampin' Up Top Note Die, Dimensionals, Brads
PAPER: Beige Card, Spot Embossed Paper, Vellum

My other one, is similar to one I did at a Stampin' Up Launch.  I've been thinking about it as it was simple yet so elegant not to mention easy!  I have also been wondering whether I could tweak it a a bit for Christmas. Hmmmmm - may need more work, but I'm thinking it's definately do-able.

I'm trying to think of alternate stamps, and then to create the Christmassy feel with colours....a bit more thinking required, but I'm off to a good start.  I kept this neutral, so I could use it for a birthday in the interim.

STAMPS: Stampin' Up Mixed Bunch / Short and Sweet
INKS: Stampin' Up Whisper White
ACCESSORIES: Stamp World Irridescent Sparkle Emboss Powder + Heat Gun, Pearl Brad, Stampin' Up Twine, Stampin' Up Top Note Die, Dimensionals
PAPER: Speckled Card, Shimmery Olive Card , Vellum

So, what cha readin...?

So, picked this up as it was on special and in the spirit of trying new things - gave it a shot. Hmmmm.  Loved the ideas: urban fantasy (sans Vampires), some Chinese mythology and some martial arts (sounded promising and I do love a Jackie Chan film!)  This however was just "meh to OK", not all all what I had hoped for.  It was just too predictable and drawn out (400+ pages).  As it's the first in a trilogy there were what I suspect was a lot of plot setting books 2 and 3.

BOOK: White Tiger, Dark Heavens Book 1

AUTHOR: Kylie Chan

RELEASED: 2006

PUBLISHER: Harper Collins

IMAGE BY:angusrobertson.com.au

 

I have however just read through a few old favourites, David Baldacci's Camel Club series. Most recently finishing up with this one, Hell's Corner, book 5 in the Camel Club series.  There's just always a twist in them which you don't see coming, and the plots are great.  Now I'm not saying they are particularly plausible, but they are the book equivalent of action movies which you can watch over and over again. David Baldacci is one of my go to authors when I decide to save money and re read books. I can easily read the books back to back! I suspect it's the eclectic mix of characters fighting for a righteous cause - you know good v evil!

TITLE: Hell's Corner

AUTHOR: David Baldacci

RELEASED: 2010

PUBLISHER: Pan Macmillan

IMAGE BY: booktopia.com.au