Thwarted by the snow

Hows the weather where you are? I think its fair to say its flippin' freezing.

I had planned to meet up with a friend on Saturday evening for a lovely pub dinner and a good old catch up however the weather had other plans for me. There was a few inches of snow outside my door but being the eternal optimist I figured if I could just get my car out of the side streets then the main roads would be fine, how wrong I was! I never made it out of second gear and after passing an ambulance car that had mistaken a building for a bit of road and reduced its overall length by a good foot or two I decided the safest option was to turn around and head for the safety of home.
I was not a happy bunny, especially as the friend I was meeting had placed an order for a photo frame which I was taking with me, hopefully the weather will subside soon else I may have to post it to her.

Anyway, wherever you are and whatever the weather, stay warm, stay safe, be lucky and make sure you pop over to Wendy's Handmade Monday too.
Until next time,
Jem
x

Best laid plans (and my birthday!)

OK so this week I had a lot of things planned which I was hoping to show off this weekend... best laid plans anyone?
Well I started the week by sleeping through most of Monday after working the Sunday night shift, I slept surprisingly well on Monday night too although I woke at 2:30am on Tuesday and couldn't get back to sleep. Despite technically being an adult I still always wake early on my birthday, even though I wasn't particularly excited about it.

So did I do anything special to celebrate? Probably not by many peoples standards but for me I enjoyed it. I tidied the house in the early hours, watched a bit of TV, had a long hot bubble bath, made a homemade veggie bhuna, drank half a bottle of malibu and relaxed. Maybe its a sign of getting old but clubbing really isn't my thing anymore!
Wednesday I had a very good chat with a lady from HMRC, rather than attending one of their workshops they are now offering telephone workshops which are supposed to last about 20 minutes. Mine lasted a good hour and the amount of information I gained was fantastic. I'm no longer scared about the dreaded self assessment, in fact I'm quite looking forward to receiving it and getting stuck in (I will probably regret saying this in a few months time!) So the rest of Wednesday was spent sorting receipts and trying to get things into order.
Thursday I spent quite a bit of my day playing with my new birthday present, a Kindle. These things are absolutely fabulous, I'm quite addicted to it now. I did have a few technical issues with it first off trying to collect it to my wireless network however the ever reliable 'turn it off and on again' worked a treat and I was soon up and running. Now I just need to find a nice handmade case for it... or maybe a few nice cases!

Friday I was back into work. Where does the time go? Hopefully you can see why I didn't get much done.
I didn't completely forget about my paintbrush though, I did find time to paint a few photo frames, first up are these cute stars and hearts:

As Valentines day is fast approaching I also painted these two designs:

That's all I have to offer this weekend, note to self - must do more next week!

As usual I'm linking up with Wendy's Handmade Monday so please do go and have a look at what others have been up to.
Until next time
Jem
x

Babies EVERYWHERE!

Is it just me or does there seem to be a bit of a baby boom at the moment?
At this moment in time I have one cousin pregnant, one cousin has just had a baby girl last month, at work I have one colleague who also had a baby girl last month, three colleagues who are heavily pregnant and two male colleagues have just had babies (well their partners did!)
It seems that everywhere I turn theres either a buggy or a bump. Now i'm not getting broody, i'm far too immature for that, but I am getting creative. All these babies being born deserve beautiful gifts!
I wanted to create a baby plaque that people could buy before they knew the name of the baby, or even before they knew the sex. So I came up with these:
For baby boys:

For baby girls:

And I did one very similar in cream for those who don't yet know if its a little boy or girl, unfortunately I haven't yet photographed it!
I think they're pretty cute but I'm still toying around with the facial expressions and debating whether or not to add some more embellishments, what do you think?
Now going back to my cousin and my colleague who both had baby girls last month, amazingly they were both born on the same day and their mothers share the same name, spooky! I wanted to create a little something special so for my colleague I made this:

and I made a similar one for my cousin

And then a matching money box as my mum wanted a gift to give her too

Here's the two of them together:

Myself and my mum travelled to London on Friday and delivered the gifts to the new baby, I also did a plaque and bag of sweets for her big brother and sister so they didn't feel left out, big sister had this:

And big brother had a similar plaque to the giraffe from the last post, again I stupidly forgot to photograph it (slaps hands)
The cousin who's still pregnant (due next month) had a baby shower today which myself and my mum went to, it was good fun and she had a whole table full of gifts. I haven't made her a gift yet as I'm waiting to see what she names it however my mum wanted a moneybox to give to her so I made her this:

I didn't get to see her reaction as we had to leave before the end to travel back however she did see the other moneybox and she loved it so hopefully she'll like hers too.
Anyway thats enough baby talk from me, its tired me out!
What have you been up to this week? Pop along to Wendy's Handmade Monday to see the other talented crafters and their wonderful creations. This is the second time I've entered as Jam Dalory and as well as picking up new followers i'm hoping to join in every week at least until the end of 2011.
Until next time...