Simple Pleasures to end 2011

I love simple pleasures, the sort that don't cost a lot of money, don't take a lot of effort and are just, well, simple.

After the hustle and bustle of the last few weeks and returning to work on Boxing Day I am finally able to enjoy one of these simple pleasures. All to soon it will be time to get back to normality and the chaos of getting my new business off the ground so its nice to take some time to forget everything and just relax.

I finished work, tidied the house, cooked a delicious homemade meal then relaxed in a lovely hot bath for an hour which was made so much lovelier by the fact that I had these...

Bath bombs I ordered from Bath Bomb Creations, I ordered a few of these as Christmas presents and these are the freebie ones that they kindly (and unexpectedly) added to the box, everyone loves a surprise freebie. They smell absolutely gorgeous and I can't wait to use the others that I've got from them. Do check out their website which launches in January 2012.

After dragging myself out of the bath I had some lovely new PJ's to put on 

(everyone gets Primark PJ's for Christmas in my family!) before climbing into bed with a mug of hot chocolate and marshmallows and watching the Lion King on DVD.

Simple and lovely. What more could a girl want!

So what are your simple pleasures?

Until next time,

Happy New Year everyone

Jem

x

P.S. I will be posting about the Christmas presents I gave and made very soon so do come back or click the follow button to make sure you don't miss it!

Christmas x

So how was your Christmas? Did you get spoiled rotten? Did you eat too much? Did you spend some much needed time with family and friends? I know I did!
I spent Christmas day sober as a judge thanks to an agonizing toothache deciding to make itself known at 3:30am on Christmas Eve morning, luckily I managed to get an emergency dentist who gave me a course of antibiotics however they came with the strict warning 'DO NOT DRINK ALCOHOL'. Given the choice between toothache and no-alcohol it was an easy choice to make, even I couldn't have drunk enough booze to numb that pain!
Apart from that little set back though I had a great time seeing friends and family and getting a wee bit sloshed on the Friday night (before the toothache kicked in-haha). I got some great presents and my handmade gifts were very well received. I shall be posting more about them soon, did you guess what they were?
All too soon though its back to normality (almost) I'm back into work tonight for the night shift, I just hope its not too busy.
Whatever you're doing with yourself this festive season stay safe, have lots of fun and have a drink for me. I'll be back in a few days to take a look back at 2011.
Jem
x

The week before Christmas

Its the week before Christmas and if you're anything like me you'll be wondering just where the time has gone?

Have you had any snow yet? Despite the weather warnings I've not had to dig my car out yet, unlike last year...

So what have you been up to this week? I was off work Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday (I can't include Monday as I slept the whole day after finishing the Sunday night shift). I have to admit to loving and hating the internet, I hate it because it is like a magnet when theres so many other things I need to be getting on with. I love it though because it means I can shop from the comfort of my PJs so I've ordered most of my Christmas shopping this way.

I have almost completed the last of my handmade gifts and I really wish I could show you but it will have to wait a week so as not to spoil surprises.
What I can show you though is some snippets of some of them as a bit of a taster,

They are a bit blurry and for once that is deliberate, I will show you the full pictures after Christmas.

What I can show you a proper photo of though is this

I love mince pies, not shop bought ones though, they have to be homemade! Admittedly I didn't make the pastry myself (thanks JusRoll) nor did I make the mincemeat (Asda) but I cut out the shapes and cooked them myself! I have seen some great looking recipes for mince pies since I started blogging and i've tried many different homemade ones but these are the first ones i've ever made myself! Not bad eh? They taste pretty good too!

Anyway, thats enough random ramblings from me, I'm off to Handmade Monday to see what others have been up to and I'll be back after Christmas. I hope you all have a wonderful time,
Merry Christmas,
Jem
x

2 weeks to go...

...and Christmas will be here, where has this year gone?
Right so this week, as promised, I've done a bit more than last week. Firstly the little girls plaque that was ordered to go with the Fireman Sam plaque. I did post this a couple of days ago but I wanted to show it to the Handmade Monday crowd.

I delivered it to the lady at work this weekend and she was thrilled with them both.

My cousin who's baby was due this month gave birth a little early so I've made her a plaque too for her beautiful little girl,

I'm popping it into the post tomorrow so it should arrive sometime this week.

Now with so many houses and people to deliver presents to I always wondered how the big red man remembered where to go? In order to make sure he didn't forget my home I made a little reminder plaque for him!

I've almost finished my Christmas orders but unfortunately I can't put them up yet in case the recipients see them. I will post them after Christmas though.
Its been a bit like Christmas for me already with various parcels arriving through the door for various crafty bits and pieces but the one that got me most excited was my business cards finally arriving from Vistaprint

Ooooh its all coming together!
And finally another little decoration to add to the Christmas tree,

So what have you been up to this week? Are you ready for Christmas? Pop over to Wendy's Handmade Monday to marvel at what the others have been up to and the enormous amount of orders that poor Wendy is completing. I'm heading over there now and my mission is to leave a comment on every link!
I've also decided to join in over at Made It Myself Monday.
Until next time,
Jem
x

Wednesday Linky Parties

Ok, so now I've been bitten by the blogging bug (try saying that after a few drinks!) I'm keen to keep it up.

One of the best things about blogging is getting feedback especially when its positive and gaining followers who keep coming back because they like what you do. The best way of doing this has to be the linky parties. I've been doing the Handmade Mondays for a little while now but thanks to my normal job having a random shift pattern sometimes I don't have a lot to show on the Monday but a couple of days later I've created something that I can't wait until the next Monday to show off.
This week is one of those weeks, on Monday I only had a couple of Christmas tree decorations to show off as I'd worked 8 days in a row, after a couple of days off I now have some other bits and pieces to blog about.
In order to solve my impatience I've been hunting around and found some other linky parties 'What I Whipped Up Wednesday' and 'Made by me Wednesday'. These parties have an awful lot of people joining in and they have some fabulous creations so I thought I'd join them!
A little while ago I showed a Fireman Sam plaque that I've made as a special order, I've tweaked it a little as I want to use twine on the plaques unless someone specifically asks for ribbon.

Well here is the plaque for little Alfie's sister which I finished today.

I doodled some little mice a while ago for another design but decided to use one of them for this plaque and I think its quite sweet.
I'm now going to go a look through some of the other links, make sure you do too.
Until next time,
Jem
x

December already?

Is it really December already? Where has the time gone?
I'm currently on day 8 of working non stop for my normal job so crafting has taken a bit of a back seat thanks to being out for at least half of every day. I have the next three days off so I'm going to be busy catching up on a few things which I will have ready for next weeks Handmade Monday. It seems everybody has suddenly got really busy, I just wish mine was with crafting rather than boring normal work!
This week I realised that I don't have any handmade decorations for my christmas tree so in the little time between working, eating and sleeping I made these little decorations.

These have the same design on each side and are only about 5cm in size, I really like them and will be putting them in little organza bags to give out to friends and family.
I have a few more designs which are just on paper at the moment but they will definately be finished this week.
Sorry this week is so short but on the positive side its made me realise how organised I need to make myself if I want to do this job properly as well as my normal job.
I'm off to have a quick look round the other crafters on Handmade Monday and also on Bath Bomb Creations new linky party before I head off into work for the last shift before 3 well deserved days off!
Until next time,
Jem
x
P.S. I actually saw snow whilst working in the early hours of this morning, not just small bits you can mistake for rain but proper big flakes, winter is most definitely here!

Sunday

So what have you been up to this week? I've spent most of it working the night shifts (boo) and being woken up during the day by deliveries and builders working nearby. As I work a weird shift pattern at my normal job when ordering things for delivery that I know won't fit through the letterbox I try to arrange for them to arrive when I have a day off or I'm working nights. 9 times out of 10 they arrive when i'm on nights so the postman gets greeted by me in the middle of the day in my PJs with crazy bed hair, I dread to think what they must think of me!
One good thing about this week though was that I told a lady at work about my new business venture and showed her some pictures of things I'd made. I handed her my camera then sat back bracing myself for criticism or at best a "Hmmm that's nice," instead I got "Will you make some for me for my neighbours children for Christmas?" I was so chuffed I was smiling for the rest of my shift! She asked me to make two plaques, one for a little girl and one for a little boy. She left the design up to me but asked that the girls plaque be girly (so pinks and purples) and if possible could I do a Fireman Sam for the little boy. All the things I've made have been from images that have popped into my head or from various doodles so to have a specific character to try to do was a bit of a challenge. After a search of the internet to make sure I got the colours and detail right I came up with this:

She couldn't remember the name of the little girl so I've not been able to finish that plaque just yet.

Also this week as I mentioned in my last post, I got my new logo:

I'd been trying to do it myself on the computer but with a complete lack of computer skills it was never going to happen so I sent a drawing of it to Verve Designs who not only made it a proper logo, they improved it by giving me that lovely swooshy style writing. Not to mention they did it in less than a week! As soon as I received it I got onto Vistaprint to have some business cards made up and they are (hopefully) on their way to me now. I have added it to my website too, which has taken a bit of a back seat this week, I've decided it will now go live in January to give me plenty of time to get it just how I want it.
I like this design as I can use it with or without the writing, I'm going to have some little round stickers made up too so that I can add them to the packaging.

I love money boxes and think they make lovely gifts, especially for babies so today I did a bit of a practice with a rocking horse design,

I'm not that keen on the colours for this one but I do like the shape, I think the next ones I do will be in just one colour like all pink or all blue. I do like the little heart gems though, I've used them on some baby plaques before and they're something I will make sure I've always got in my craft box!
Pop over to Handmade Monday to see how busy Wendy has been with her camper-van clocks and to see what the other crafters have been up to.
Until next time
Jem
x