JUST BECAUSE.......

Do you ever have a day, when you want to do something for someone just because?

I work for a local Cancer Charity, and although we are a small team, we are all incredibly busy.  My lovely boss Lisa, is snowed under at the moment with work, and with things going on in her personal life, at the moment, that yesterday was my just because day.

She has been travelling a lot with work, so when she does I go and feed her cat for her, which I did yesterday.  Whilst there in her kitchen, I left her a bunch of flowers, a 2 ltr bottle of diet pepsi, and box of mint matchmakers (all of which are some of her favourite things), and this card that I'd made the day before:

Lisa came back last night, and shortly after I got a lovely text from her to say "thank you so much for the pressies and very kind card.  Made me cry!  Very, very lovely to come home too.  You are so thoughtful and it is appreciated.  Thanks for looking after Lulu".

It made my day to do something for someone else that didn't cost much, but was really appreciated.  I then found out that yesterday was world kindness day(!) which I didn't know when I planned my surprise for Lisa.

I'd like to enter this card into the:

Crafty Creations Challenge - Dies and Punches
Creative Moments Challenge - Anything Goes/CAS

NEWSPAPER CARDS

Lately, I have been doing some newspaper cards as lots of people I know have had special birthdays:

This one was for my 'desk buddy' at work and good friend Tash, whose favourite thing in the world is shopping for new clothes, bags, shoes and perfume.  She loves pink, so this was a perfect card for her.

Next up was a special 21st one for my lovely niece Jennifer.  Since graduating in the summer, she is making a new life with her boyfriend out in Australia.  She has managed to get a couple of jobs out in Perth, one of which is to help disabled kids learn to ride horses, and since she graduated in Equine Management, I think that this will be the perfect job for her to use her knowledge and skills with the kids.  I tried to theme it to incorporate Australia and horse, and finally found the balance:

 

The final 2 are older ones, that were made for a work colleague, who likes Manchester United, and his all time favourite player was George Best:

 

With this one I made a ManU badge to go on the card, that I was quite impressed with :), and this one is for a friends husband who is a keen golfer:

Finally one for my cousin Carl's 40th birthday - he is a huge Arsenal fan, so this one was easy:

A CHALLENGE AT CATCH THE BUG

I made a card yesterday for my friends little boy who is 4 today - Happy Birthday Lewis - and it fits perfectly into the current challenge at Catch the Bug - Western Round Up.

I love bugaboo stamps, and find them so easy to work with and colour, that I have used the Howdy image to make Lewis' card:

I just love how this card has come out.  The blue is glittered card, the stars from a DCWV paper stack, and a piece of kraft card.  The star is cut from kraft card, and I added a '4' peel off.  A bit of fake stitching finished the card of.

I'd like to enter this card into the Catch the Bug Challenge - Western Round Up

WHERE HAS THIS YEAR GONE......

I can't believe that it is 10 months since I have posted on my blog - how bad is that!

Life as always has been hectic this year, taking on a new role at work, running around after the kids, there is just not enough hours in a day.  My youngest son has been picked to play football for our borough, so 4 nights a week he is doing some kind of football training, and now plays matches on a Saturday and Sunday.  So any spare time for me is severely lacking!

I've been crafting/card making still since I last blogged, although not as often as I like, but have also got into gardening, and growing my own veg, so that has kept me busy.  I successfully managed to grow potatoes, onions, radishes, carrots and a ton of strawberries and blackberries.  The tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers didn't do well, but you live and learn, and veg growing is something that I will be doing again next year, everything tastes so much better than shop bought:

I've also had a little helper helping me in the garden - our cat May, and she loves to dig up what I plant!

I'm back into card making for Christmas - 35 down; another 20 to go.  I've challenged myself to get them all made by the end of this month, so that I can concentrate on other Christmas preps from December.  Going 'up north' Christmas shopping in 2 weeks, so looking forward to that - staying over night on my own, but it is worth the costs of the hotel, cos everything is some much cheaper than where we live.  I love wondering around home bargains shops to grab a bargain, its a shop that we don't have here, so have about 7 planned out on my trip to Stoke, and Cheshire Oaks.   My husband thinks I'm mad, but a night away on my own is pure bliss!

I made a card yesterday, and have found a challenge to enter it into, so am hoping to do some more posts before the end of the year.