My favourite cards of 2011

Hello blogworld

Today was back to school day, and (on the whole) it went well.  We have had an increase in screaming just lately when the little lady decides she doesn't like something (i.e. mummy getting her dressed!) and we had a little bit of that this morning, but I think she was as happy to go back to school as we were to have her there.  I wouldn't have thought this time last year that I would be happy to see her go to school, but (as much as I miss her) she genuinely enjoys school - like she did nursery - misses her friends when she isn't there and so I swallow my feelings and make it all happy that school is back on.

We also put Christmas away in the loft today and the house looks all sparkly and clean!  Took the opportunity to move the furniture around in the living room and it does make it look a little bigger - I've also now got the prime spot in front of the fire and telly, so I'm happy!

So onto to point of this post - I've seen a fair number of people joining in with Debby's top 5 Christmas cards of 2011 and then favourite cards of 2011.  I didn't join in with the Christmas cards - didn't have time - but I'd like to join in with the favourites of 2011.  However I can't pick just 5 so I've increased it to 10 - hope that's OK.

I think I've waffled on enough, so I'm not going into reams of details of these cards - and without further ado here they are:

My absolute favourite:

Then the others in no particular order:

My daughter's 4th birthday card:

 

I liked the sketch so much at Less Is More for this one that I got a bit carried away!

I had to have one Christmas card - as I didn't join in with the Top 5 Christmas cards

Ok, Ok so I went to 13 - but I count the Less is More ones as 1 - that brings it down to 12, then take off the Christmas card that brings it down to 11!  So one more than I said.

My goodness the wind has been howling here while I've been typing this!  It's blowing a gale down our chimney sounds awful out there!  I do hope we don't loose the chimney!!!!

Hopefully I'll be back soon with a new card or two.

See you soon,
Sarah

Rats!

Urgggh, how horrid is this - hubby goes into kitchen to make a cup of tea (with me following) next thing there is a scrabbling behind the box that houses the extractor fan tube.  Hubby says probably a bird, I squeal and run back into living room - hubby investigates by bashing box and the scrabbling gets louder and the box shifts!

He goes outside (remember we live in the wilds - no lights anywhere) with a torch and shouts at me thro window 'bash the box' - a rat runs out of the fan vent and scarpers off down the pipes!!!!

I'm now paranoid that every scrabble is the rat!  We have two cats - they are not earning their keep!

Am off to bed hoping that no rats make it into the bedroom!!!

Sarah

First card of 2012

Happy New Year blogworld

I know, I know, I'm a bit late - but better late than never, eh!  Hope you all had a happy New Year - whatever you did!  We were a couple of boring old farts and were in bed and asleep by 11, the joys of having a small person who wakes at 6 has long ago meant that we don't get late nights now.   Not that I would change a bit of it, I'd much rather have the small person than the biggest New Year celebrations!

So this is my first card of 2012 - it was a for little boy whose 4th birthday party we went to today.  Met him and his mum when he was 6 weeks old.  He is just that big younger than Emily so will be in the year below when he starts school this September and we don't get to see as much of him (or his mum!) as we used to but we do try and stay in contact and see as much of them as we can.

Waffle over here is the card:

Front shot:

Detail shot:

I used:

Lili of the Valley stamp - Sailing Boat, coloured with my Promarkers

All the papers are an Echo Park pad - Splash

The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards and cut out with Die-namics die

Scallop border is also a Die-namics die (one of my Christmas presents)

Do you ever have one of those days where nothing goes right?  Well this is a card made on one of those days, the backing card ripped, after I'd stuck the paper to it; the sentiment didn't cut straight and the scallop tore as I was trimming it so had to go dig through my stuff to find something to put over it.

I think about the only thing I'm happy with is the colouring on the image!!

Hopefully, as Emily goes back to school on Weds, I'll have some time to tidy my house and get back into routines next week.  Which is going to include some exercise for yours truly - have put on 1/2 a stone over the break and that's not good!!!

See's ya soon,

Sarah

A challenge, or two:

Papertake Weekly - Fab sketch

Paper Sundaes - #101; Something Old - Something New (my old is the stamp and new the die-namics scallop die)

The Squirrel and The Fox - Challenge #8 - Something New - the die