NO SUNDAY SNIPPETS :-(

Hi Everyone

I hope you are all having a lovely sunny weekend.

Another week has gone by with no time to even play with my snippets!  That is two weeks I have missed visiting the playground now! (Sorry Miss Di).

Many thanks for the lovely emails though checking that all is well here in the old House of Hearts.

Did you think I had escaped for a break? .. . or that I had decided to take part in the Derby 10K with my Son last weekend and was still running!!!  LOL!!

Nah!!!  I have been working very hard on weddings and orders.  Not only current happy couples to work for but potential new ones to do samples for too!!  

We did receive an offer for a little break though as you will see here  .. .. 

but how would I book Mr Heart and myself in?

Would I have to register as Mrs Julie Always With A Heart .. .. which was the name on the postal address as it arrived!!  What a mouthful that would be!!

I must admit there are some lovely offers inside so we might book an escape .. .. but not for some time yet. All is super busy in the House of Hearts as you might have guessed.  Even Mr Heart has been trained up for Cuttlebug duties and nearly has all the stars on his trainee badge! 

There is so much I want to get on top of that I haven't been anywhere near blog-land I am afraid :-(  You know what it is like .. .. you tell yourself you will "just have half an hour catch up" and suddenly it is an hour + .. .. so I decided the safest bet was to ban myself completely.  After all you can tie a lot of ribbon bows in an hour and I have to admit that when I do stop working I feel it is only fair to spend time with my family .. .. otherwise they might forget what I look like!!!  But it won't always be this busy and normality will resume eventually I am sure.

I have gained a few lovely new followers too during my absence .. .. thank you for liking my blog enough to want to come back .. .. but you must be wondering why you bothered signing up! Sorry folks .. .. I promise I'm not always this bad at posting .. .. it just happens when I get extra busy.

Mr Heart was laughing at my little date block I bought from London the other day saying "I can't believe you need this to remind you what the date is".  He laughed even louder when I said it isn't really good enough. The date and month just doesn't cut it.  I need to know what day it is and even what year!!!

He couldn't believe it .. .. .. but when working with weddings for 2014, 2015 and even 2016 you can easily wonder what year it "actually" is!! LOL!!

I wish everyone a good week - with hopefully some sunshine!

Love

WITH LOVE

Hi Everyone

Happy Friday .. .. ahead of what I hope will be a happy weekend for you.

We have The London Kids coming to stay for the weekend so whilst my printer has been beavering away on wedding work I have been "finding" the spare bedroom for them.  My eldest Son is taking part in the Derby 10K as part of the 2014 in 2014 challenge.  Not sure where he has got this "running streak" from.  It must be a throw-back from the past because certainly Mr Heart and I couldn't run to save our lives!!

I tried running from the Post Office back to my car the other day (only a few hundred yards) and twisted my ankles twice in the process LOL!!

Anyway, there is only so much cutting, printing, creasing and folding of card that can be done before your fingers itch to get a stamp out to play with.  I decided on this one .. .. which looking at the weather this morning doesn't seem very appropriate.

This used:

Image and Sentiment:  Imagination Crafts Decoupage Stamp Range "Tulips"

Cuttlebug Embossing Folder:  Swiss Dots

My Trust Sewing Machine

Watercolour Paint Palette

Versafine Ink Pad and Clear Embossing Powder

Liquid Pearls

Ribbon

Josy Rose:  Nail Heads

So that is me for today.

Time to get Mr Sheen and Mr Dyson working overtime whilst the printer churns away .. .. again!!!

Busy, busy world here at the moment!

Love

SUPER DUPER BUSY

Hi Everyone

Happy Tuesday.

I hope you are all well and have got to see a little bit of sunshine this week.

All super duper busy here at the moment and no time to make anything to share with you .. .. other than boxes of card I have been cutting to size ready for a mammoth printing session tomorrow .. .. and then of course boxes of the off-cuts that I can't bear to throw away!!  I think they would make for rather boring pictures!!  LOL!!!

So instead I will share with you a card that I made for this month's Quick Cards Made Easy magazine which used some fabby Sizzix dies, distress inks and Stampin' Up stamps.  There were four other cards in the set but this one was my favourite.  I really enjoyed making it.  Especially working on the background paper.  I think I should do more of that!!

So, off I go to get tidied up ready for tomorrow.  A tidy work area makes for a good quick start to the day.

I hope everyone is well.  Sorry I am AWOL at the moment but needs must I'm afraid!

Catch you when I do.

Love

SUNDAY SNIPPET

Hi Everyone

I hope you have all had a lovely day .... .... and particularly all of you Mums out there.  

I know quite a few blog owners for whom today will have been very difficult for various reasons.  I did think of you all and hoped you were coping OK .. .. and I also stopped and counted my blessings.

Of course the other big event of the day is the loss of that hour .. .. and boy have I missed it!!  I feel I have been chasing my tail all day.

Only recently finished my snippet makes even though I started them first thing this morning.  I took a look at my overflowing little snippet drawers and decided that it was the cream and brown that needed to be attacked this week .. .. but I have to admit my makes didn't make much of a dent in them!

But here they are anyway:

Back to my usual lazy Sunday mode and no listing of ingredients but if you need to know anything I will try my best to help.

Off now to link up to Pixie's Snippet Playground Challenge.

Thank you for all the anniversary wishes yesterday .. .. Mr Heart and I had a lovely day (and yes, we were both very young when we got married.  I was just 19 and Mr Heart was 20 ... .. .. .. so now you know how ancient I am LOL!!!).

Catch you again soon and enjoy what is left of the evening.

Love

VERY LATE SNIPPETS

Hi Everyone

Happy Saturday!!

Here are my entries for Pixie's Snippet Playground Challenge .. .. I didn't get chance to enter last Sunday as we were in London (where did that week go?!?).

So I am running there now with minutes to spare and will come back later to write the rest of this post . .. I have to be somewhere special very soon and need to slap my make-up on.

Will fill you in later.

.................................................................................................................................................................

Back again to let you know what I used on my snippet makes above.

Images:  Papermania "Hampstead Collection Clear Stamps" and Penny Black "3741K" Filigree Tree
Sentiment:  Computer Generated and Pink Petticoat
Backing Papers:  Papermania "A Silent Night"
Josy Rose:  Nail Heads
My Trust Sewing Machine
Cord from my Stash Box

Hopefully I will get chance to play along properly tomorrow in my usual super lazy Sunday mode.

Quite a few of you have been asking how I am getting on with my new Cuttlebug.   I am happy to report that I love it!!  It works just as well as my old one .. .. with the exception of the handle.  That is taking some getting used to.  The old one was fixed in place but this one is hinged so that it can fold into the body of the machine for storage.  Personally I would like something to allow me to lock/unlock the hinge.. .. but we can't always have everything we want can we?  LOL!!!

So where was I rushing off to this morning at the speed of light after hastily posting my snippet makes?

Well today is an extra special day in the House of Hearts.  Mr & Mrs Heart have been married for a whole 39 years today and we were treated to a champagne breakfast by my Auntie and Uncle.  So a gorgeous breakfast at the hotel where I do my wedding fayres, and a stroll through the gardens afterwards in beautiful sunshine.  I felt like Royalty!

A far cry from the weather the day we got married.  It was a bitter cold day then and it had been snowing in the week leading up to our special day. 

I don't know.  All those years ago and yet it feels like it was yesterday!!

I feel so lucky to have met my Mr Right so early and to be able to share my life with him for all of this time.

So a romantic dinner for two tonight and that will be the end to a lovely day.  Anniversary calories don't count do they?

See you tomorrow.

Love and hugs

SWEET WISHES

Hi Everyone

Happy Friday!!

I hope you have had a good day.

Mine passed by in the blink of an eye and involved me meeting what I am sure will turn out to be the most decisive bride I will probably ever work with.

We spent about an hour and a half together and she has decided exactly what she wants from invitations through to favours and a table plan .. .. ..  and has added herself to my working list of "happy couples". Yay!!!

She had a fabulous wedding organiser book with her that was full of all the things she has already booked .. .. each page having room to write contact details etc and pockets for storing the relevant receipts/invoices etc.  I had a lovely tour of everything.  Her wedding transport, flowers, and cake .. .. and all her inspiration pictures.  It was fabby and straight away my brain was working out how I could make one with my lovely binding machine I bought off Ebay the other week.

Oh dear .. .. another item added to the .. .. when "I have time list".   Believe me that list is HUGE  LOL!!!  I really do need more days in my week!

But for now we will just have to make do with a little card .. .

This used:

Image:  Penny Black "1670K" Sugar Sweet Dreams
Sentiment:  Pink Petticoat (no longer available)
Backing Papers:  Pink Petticoat
ProMarkers
Josy Rose:  Nail Heads
My Trust Sewing Machine
Twine and Charm from my Stash Box

I love colouring this image but for some reason always feel it has to be accompanied by red gingham paper! I wonder if I should get out more??!?

Have a lovely weekend everyone.  I hope the sun shines for you and you find a bit of crafty time.

Love

CLUSTERS

Hi Everyone

Happy Thursday!

I hope you have had a good day and have dodged any raindrops!.

A super busy one here .. .. but I have managed to make something to share with you.

This used:

Image:  Penny Black "3633K" Clusters
Sentiment and Backing Papers:  Pink Petticoat
Die'sire Dies:  Scalloped Tags
Distress Ink:  Spun Sugar
Diamond Stickles
ProMarkers
My Trusty Sewing Machine
Ribbon and Pearls from my Stash Box

and that is me for today.

Time to get my wedding head on now and get my samples together ready to meet up with a new bride tomorrow morning.

Enjoy the rest of your evening.

Love

WORN OUT AND IN NEED OF A REST

.. .. No not me!!!

As usual I am annoyingly full of beans  .. .. .. fresh as a daisy .. .. .. and hyper-active.

But the same cannot be said for my faithful old Cuttlebug machine.

This poor chappie has been a very good and loyal friend but is now well and truly past his best and ready for a rest.  Have you ever seen such a sorry sight?

But it owes me no favours at all.  

I purchased it in November 2007 and it has been used nearly every day ever since .. .. sometimes for hours and hours on end!!!

Just look at him all held together with duct tape to stop the ends plinging off and to hold a huge crack together that seemed to appear from no-where.  Originally Mr Heart put duct tape into the opening too .. ..  .. ..  but of course the plates slowly rubbed the tape away to leave a horrible sticky mess behind  (you can't get the staff these days can you LOL!!).

So the time has come for a new model (Cuttlebug not hubby) and this has arrived on the craft desk today.

A brand new sparkly clean one.  I feel super posh now.

It doesn't seem as solid and robust as my old one but I have to admit it is very, very quiet and smooth running in comparison.

Of course I shall still keep the old one .. .. just in case .. .. but I did feel very cruel taking the new one out of the box and putting the old one in its place to store in the roof.  

So it is time to put the new one through its paces for the first time .. .. lots of cutting to do for a wedding job.

Enjoy the rest of your day.

Love

RUDOLPH DAY CHALLENGE - MARCH

Hi Everyone

I hope you have all had a good day .. . all the sunshine of yesterday has been replaced by rain here today :-(

Oh well .. .. at least that stopped me doing any more washing LOL!!!

I am all prepared and ready for sharing two cards for entering into Sandra's Rudolph Day Challenge for March. Gosh we are a quarter of the way through 2014 already!!  Can you believe it?!?!  I know I can't.

So here are my two makes for this month:

These used:

Images:  Penny Black "X2754H" Xmas Kiss and "2995F" Stocking
Sentiments:  Papermania Urban Stamps "PMA 90180" Christmas in the Country Tags
Backing Papers:  First Edition Papers "Silent Night"
Impression Obsession Dies:  "DIE100-F" Snowflakes
Die-namics Dies: Insert it - 3 x 4 Notepad
Cuttlebug Embossing Folder: Snowflakes
X-Cut Punch:  Corner Rounder
Josy Rose:  Nail Heads
Distress Ink Pad:  Old Paper
My Trusty Sewing Machine
Glamour Dust
ProMarkers
Pearls, Twine, Metallic Thread, Gems and Ribbon from my Stash Box

As you can see the "Jaunty Angle" therapy is starting to take effect and I am finding it a little easier to work through the pain.  LOL!!!.  

So that is me for today .. .. with two more cards into the Christmas box.  Woo hoo!!

Love

BUTTERFLY CHALLENGE

Hi Everyone

I hope you have all had a wonderful Monday!

The sun has had its happy hat on today and been shining beautifully .. .. in fact lovely enough to make myself loads of ironing .. .. grrrr!!!  As if I don't have better things to do LOL!

So sunshine makes you think of flowers .. .. and flowers make you think of butterflies .. .. and then I suddenly realised I hadn't played along with Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge this time round.  Best put that right as there aren't many hours left to enter Challenge Number 3 where the theme is "A Stitch in Time" .. .. which is stitching .. .. either real or faux!

So here is my make.

This used:

Sentiment Stamp:  Hero Arts "H4938" Happy Birthday!
Backing Papers:  First Edition Paper:  Daydream
Memory Box Dies:  Moonlight Butterfly and Kaleidoscope Butterfly
Josy Rose:  Nail Heads
X-Cut Punch:  Small Flower
My Trusty Sewing Machine
Ribbon and Pearls from my stash box

Now round to those little twine flowers I promised to give away.  I was very surprised and touched by how many of you lovely blog buddies liked my little flowers enough to want to use them on your creations

 .. .. so a lucky dip it was .. .. with the dip being performed for you personally by Mr Heart.

 .. .. and the winner of the 5 twine flowers (all nestled in their own little storage box waiting to be loved)

is

In fact you will have 6 flowers to use Bernie if you pull the one off the top of the box !! 

I hope you like them and enjoy will enjoy using them.  Just email me your details and I will get them into the post for you.  My email address is on my profile page.

So that is me for today.   Thank you and commiserations to everyone who joined in but didn't win.  I will have to do the same again sometime.

I suppose some of that ironing will have to be tackled tonight :-(  I hope your evening is going to be a little more exciting than mine.

Love