He came!

Santa came and left us all that we wished for plus a whole lot more!

We were very very lucky peeps indeed.

The guys have been playing Guitar Hero 3 non stop ever since they unwrapped it.

The camcorders went down well, as did all of their pressies - in fact both said it was their bestest Christmas ever :D

Hubs loved the new jacket I bought for him and was totally blown away by my special gift - I bought us tickets to go to the SupaMotoX in Anaheim - we normally watch this on the extreme sports channel - but not this time - Oh no Sirree - we will be there in the crowd, soaking up the atmosphere for real - whoo hoo!

I received so many utterly fabtastic gifts from Hubs and the guys - Momiji's, troll beads, smellies, crafty stuff and a sweet little wooden cabinet I have had my eye on for a while - Hubs got me an Iphone too plus my camera!! I guess that means I must have been a good girl this past year??????

Christmas day sorta went along as it does in a bit of a blur - and not an alcohol induced blur either - the guys woke at 9am despite me being up from 6.30am! I was rattling pots and pans trying to wake them all up but nope they weren't having any of it!

Pressie eventually got opened - lots of hugs and kisses - bestest buddies arrived as they normally do for a little Christmas drinky poo's - they left us at 2pm and we settled ourselves down to lunch - never again! We threw away more than we ate!!

We have decided that next Christmas we are deffo going away - somewhere snowy for sure.

A nice crisp walk in the afternoon and then back to snuggle down to start watching the mountain of DVD's we had been given!

Boxing day was much the same - Buddies came to spend the afternoon and evening with us and the Wii took a serious bashing!

Some silly person had the bright idea of hitting the sales at 6am the next morning - Linz was it you or I - I cant remember!!! LOL!

Anyways we shopped till we dropped and the credit card was seriously smokin by the time I had left Next and Monsoon!

Home to try on - snuggle and watch even more films!

The past couple of days we have just pottered around - messed about with new gadgets and gizzmos - watched even more films and battled the nights away on the Wii.

Ive managed a lil scrapping time whilst the guys have been playing Mario Olympics - Jeez! that game is exhausting!!!

I have been working on a secret lil project which goes live on the 30th - in the meantime I'll leave a few sneaky peeps

If you want to see more then you will need to check out the Prima blog!

So the New Year is nearly upon us....we head back"home" tomorrow to go spend some quality time with family and friends - plus I will get to give my new baby nephew a cuddle or two - spend some time with sweet William who is now safely on the road to recovery :D and see my Momma..x.x.

Here's to a very happy and prosperous New Year.

May your 2008 be blessed with all that you desire.

T.x.x.x

Matchbox Advent Tutorial

I wanted to create an alternative Advent style gift for one of my children and decided to use matchboxes as they are the perfect size to hide a tiny daily treat!

To create your own Christmas Advent Matchbox Cabinet you will need to gather together the following supplies -

24 small matchboxes 

One 12x12 sheet of Christmas themed patterned paper
24 metal brads
Christmas themed Chipboard pieces
8 inches of 1 inch wide spotted ribbon to coordinate with your papers
Rik Rak in coordinating colours
Two 4x4inch squares of thick chipboard or mount board 

Number rubons or you can use stamps
Acrylic paint to coordinate
Black doodling pen 

Strong double sided tape
Wet Adhesive

Using a strong double sided tape, I adhered three match boxes one on top of another until I had eight stacks in total – this gives 24 drawers – perfect for my advent themed project. 

Acrylic paint was used to cover all areas, including the inside of the drawers.

Whilst waiting for the paint to dry I covered two pieces of chipboard, measuring 4 x 4 inches, with patterned paper.

Once the matchbox towers were dry I started to assemble my matchbox cabinet. 
Its best to sit the boxes in place and check they are in the right direction before adhereing to the base. 
The matchbox towers need to sit as shown in the diagram below.

They should end up looking something like this -




Once you are happy with their position adhere all boxes in place using a strong adhesive. This will form the body of your cabinet. 
Alternating the direction in which the boxes sit on the chipboard base gives space for decorative paper, photographs or embellishments to be added to the project.

I covered another 4x4 inch piece of chipboard with patterned paper. To decorate, I cut two lengths of ribbon 4inches long and tied them together forming a decorative knot.

The lose ends were then adhered to the underneath of the mountboard using double sided tape and additional embellishments added.

This decorated chipboard piece is then adhered to the top of the stacked match boxes to form a lid. 

Brads and ribbon were used to create “handles” by threading the brads through the Rik Rak before attaching to the "drawer" fronts.

I used off cuts of paper to form drawer liners. 
Using rubons I was able to number each drawer and I used a fine line black pen to add doodled stitching. Numbers could be added using small stamped images.

This tower of small drawers makes a perfect alternative to the more traditional advent calendar, but could also be used as a decorative storage solution for your tiny treasures.

Copyright - Christmas Advent – Tracie Hudson©2007 for Bubbly Funk

Have fun.
T.x.

Thankful on this fine and frosty Eve.

I have to start this blog post by saying

*THANK YOU*

Thank you to the many people, world wide, who took time from their busy lives to send me emails, messages and phone calls offering support during what quite possibly has been a horrible horrible time for my family.

I really appreciate each and every message and prayer that you sent and have passed them on to my little Sis and her family.

Your positive vibes and prayers have helped I'm sure.

My sweet nephew is on the slow road to recovery - children are so resilient and I'm sure in a few weeks time we will be blessed with a happy bouncy toddler again.

I am thankful for the surgeons who have repaired his sweet face as best they can.

I am thankful for my loving sister and her belief that all would be well.

I am thankful to my family for the love and support we offer one another.

I am thankful for my friends and the time they spared to offer their support.

I am thankful that I have the most amazing husband who takes control when I turn to jelly.

I am thankful for my guys who love me even tho I am as batty as a fruitcake.

I am thankful for my best friend because with out her I would have no one to keep me in check.

I am thankful - just thankful for all that I have been blessed with.

So my news on this fine and frosty Christmas Eve morning -

The Panto was such fun - the guys loved every second. It was truly amazing and we were fortunate enough to have snagged front row seats.

I took a ton of piccies and was mighty impressed with them as I have finally mastered ISO/white balance and aperture settings :D - I just need to start learning how to use CS3 now!

We were just about to leave the theatre to make our way home when I got hauled up by one of the theatre stewards - errr nowhere did it say in the theatre or programme that photography wasn't allowed - ah well at least I was allowed to keep these piccies.

I took this piccie as we walked to the theatre - I sorta felt mighty proud of myself as I had managed to be more organised this year and wasnt one of the last minute shoppers battling through the crowds in search of Christmas pressies.

We are ready for Christmas - the trees are up (we have 3!!! One in the main sitting room - one in the dinning room and one in my workshop!! - excessive I know - BUT I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!)

The logs are chopped and ready to feed the log burner for the next few days.

Pressies are all wrapped - I just can not wait for the guys to open their surprises!

They are crazy fools who spend so much time just being boys!

They plan and get up to so many antics - some of which I do not want to know about as I'm sure my heart couldn't take the shock!!

We are talking Jackass styley pranks and tricks!

Bobs is always asking me if he can borrow my camcorder - errr well he could if he wanted to use it sensibly - but trying to sellotape it to his head so he can film himself skateboarding isn't what I would consider to be sensible!

So Hubs has gone and bought the guys a camcorder each - my only fear is that I will spend far too many hours in the A&E department as a result of their latest crazy plan!

It really isn't a good idea to strap a chair to two skateboards and then attempt to roll down a hill is it????

Sheesh! No wonder I am going grey!!!!!!

My best buddie came over to take me out for the day yesterday and on a spur of the moment I treated myself to a Espresso machine!

I bought a ton of coffee in a variety of flavours - we have sampled Guatemala Elephant and yummmmmmy - so much nicer than your bog standard Nescafe - bleurgh!!!

If anyone is a "proper" coffee drinker and they read my witterings I would really appreciate some feedback as to which coffee you like.

So...best buddie came and went - I scrapped a little - wrapped a little - and chatted lots to my Sis last night - 4 hours of gas bagging to one another on the phone - I love my Sis - I really do.x.x.x.x.x

If over the Christmas period you fancy a little crafting time and need some inspiration then check out the 12 Days of Christmas over on Bad Girls - I posted the twelfth day - 12 Drummers Drummimg - OK so I know its not a drum - but its is circular shaped! Its a hatbox which I decorated using yummy Basic Grey - I am not a Basic Grey lover at all but Mellow just has to be on my list of fav papers of 2007 - what are your favourite lines from the past year? - do tell.

Pencil Lines will be updated over the holiday season too - with amazing sketches that are ideal for your Christmas piccies....I just love the LO I created for the sketch which goes live tonight....its already been given as a gift too!

So that's me done and dusted - its Christmas Eve - my 'puta gets turned off in approx 2 mins and I lock myself away in my cosy home to enjoy spending quality time with my beautiful family and I won't be venturing to the world wide web for a few days....so all I have left to say is...............

T.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Prayerful

If you believe in the power of prayer then please spare a few for my baby sweet Nephew.

He was savagly attacked by a dog today and is currently undergoing surgery to try and repair the damaged caused to his poor little body and face.

My heart aches for my poor Sis and Brother in Law and even more so for my darling sweet William.

Please God - make him better.

*cry*

He's Behind You!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Where is the time going?

It only feels like a day or so ago that I was telling Hubs not to panic because we had ages to get ourselves ready for the Crimble period - er and - crash bang wallop its only days away!

I've almost completed the wrapping of the pressies - the cake is being iced this arvo - I made my own Crimble cake back in the summer and have been giving it good "Sherry Soak" every month - *hic* - I don't think the guys had better sample any because it smells pretty potent!

Despite trying to be ultra organised I still feel like I have tons to do and not enough time!

The house is almost decorated - just final touches need to be added to the dining room and I can't do that until I have removed all of my surplus stash!

The guys are really looking forward to the plans we have for this evening - we are off to the Panto :D
I wasn't sure they would want to go this year as they are both at that age when they "know" that us adults are the ones who do everything to help Santa out.

The magic of the season doesn't quite feel the same anymore, so I was pleasantly surprised when both of them looked at me like I was losing the plot when I asked if they wanted skip seeing this years Panto - of course they didn't - Christmas wouldn't be the same without our annual session of booing and hissing. :D i guess it's right what they say - you are never too old for Panto!

I've been busy on the scrapping front - Ive made little mini book gifts for friends and family - managed to get one of the Scrapbook in a Bag kits done in just under 40 minutes - a few couple of framed LO's are waiting to be wrapped and on top of everything else I even made this little Crimble house!


Mr Postie came calling today and with him he bought a HUGE box - inside it was filled to brimming with this little loot direct from Prima :D


A couple of weeks ago I was approved as an International Accredited Prima Instructor! How cool is that?
Ive been asked to whizz up some items for a secret lil project using the goodies in the box ;D

2008 is a busy busy year for me with one thing and another - I'm off to CHA, California, in Jan and whilst there will be working The Piggy Tales booth - teaching a few classes here and there as well as spending some fun time with my guys.

I feel so lucky to have been given the opportunity to go over to SoCal - the guys are really looking forward to hitting the Skate Parks of Chino Hills whilst I get to hang out with my Bad Girl - Wendy :D

We jet back from the US just in time for me to hit the European Trade Show - Stitches - Feb is going to be a mad month but I'm soo looking forward to it.....March and April are looking just as crazy - with so much happening - busy bee - that's me - and I wouldn't want it any other way!

I haven't had chance to post my Pencil Lines LO from last Sunday yet - here tis -





I used scrummilicious Scenic Route papers and the photo Hubs took whilst he was messing about with my Canon - grrrr he still wont let me have a play with my new Nikon D80 - but hey ho - its only a few more days to wait :D

I best go and start icing the cake and then I can cross that job off my "to do" list :D

Before I go - I'll share a lil sneaky peep of Sundays Pencil Lines LO.


Have fun - Be happy - Get creative - Smile.
T.x.x.x

This Man........

This Man is my guys all action hero - This Man is my best friends Husband - This Man is a Daddy - This Man is a Son - This Man won't get to see his children's faces on Christmas morning as they open their gifts - This Man was emergency deployed to Afghanistan just a few hours ago to go do his thing and serve his country - This Man I am proud to call my friend.

Stay safe matey.

Love you lots.

T.x.x.x

Deck the halls....

The festive season is well and truly kicking in in this household...all pressies are now bought - I just need to nip in to town for a late night shop to replace a few items that went walkabouts yesterday - I wont go into details but I really hope that the persons needed the items more than I did. I would like to hope they wont be sold on to buy the evil drink or other substances - *sigh* - I totally understand that this time of year is hard for some - but can't understand how anyone can stoop so low as to steal from another!!

Ah well - that was yesterday - gone and forgotten.

Ive been busy decorating the house and have finally finished my Bad Girls Tree!
Its very pink and blingy!



Tinker looks kinda cool sat on top of her tree don't you think?

Ive been creating for Christmas - over on Bad Girls we are having a 12 days to Christmas Countdown, which started yesterday with Ania revealing a rather stylish lil tree decoration she made using scraps!
Go check it out here.

The theme is the 12 Days of Christmas - so I guess we will see a fair few birdies what with Partridges, Calling Birds and Turtle doves all being mentioned in the old traditional Christmas Song!!

So today is my day and I made this using some scraps of felt and some rather lush ribbons which arrived all the way from the Far East courtesy of my Pencil Lines pal Yuko.






After I had made my "two turtle doves" I decided to have another go - but this time using papers from Scenic Routes Roxbury range....






That's it from me today - pressies to wrap - baking to be done and off course more scrapping and cardmaking is in need of my attention.

Have fun

T.x.x.x

Heading Home

Yesterday Hubs, the guys and I headed home back up North to go visit family - it was such an exciting trip for us as we were going to meet the newest addition to our brood - my Sis and her partner are now Momma and Papa to the most adorable lil fella.

"Baby" has the most amazing eyes - he sure melted my heart and certainly got the old hormones raging! His nose is just the cutest lil button I have ever seen - his smile - well that really got me cooing like an old mother hen and I just wanted to munch him.

Being totally respectful of my Sis' wishes I'm not going to share any piccies just yet - things need to be finalised before they can sit back and be the happy family they have waited for so long to be.

I cant begin to retell just how happy I am for them - they make the most fantastic parents and I know "Baby" will never grow short of cuddles and love from his extended family.


I love getting together with my folks and was really pleased that my other lil Sis and her menfolk managed to make the meet up - Bobs and J love playing with their baby cousins - for far to long J was the baby of the family - now he is all "grown up" and it warms my heart watching him showing his lil cousin how to do stuff. My oldest nephew was following J around the house and I'm sure it made J feel extra special - that hero worship thing that little ones do is such a confidence boost for the older chaps isn't it?


Little W is growing fast and has the sweetest smile - although he wasn't very smiley yesterday - every time I grabbed my camera he pouted and put on this grumpy face - I can just about make out the making of a smile????


I nagged Hubs so much to let me take my new Nikon to play with - finally he relented - how happy was I???

Talk about being a complete ditzy blonde - I had my camera and lenses all sorted but what did I forget - the bloomin memory card!! Argh!!!!!! Its a good job I packed my Canon too or else there would have been no piccies at all!

The journey up North was 'orrible as gale force winds battered the South West, but as soon as we hit Bristol we left behind the rain and managed to make up on lost time and arrived at my Sis's home not too delayed!

We chatted, played, cuddled and lunched together - the perfect way to spend a blustery day - Mom was looking her wonderful self and was pleased to get cuddles from the guys - she sat watching her daughters all playing with their children - it must have been so rewarding for her to finally see us all as Mommas, although I know she secretly longs for the arrival of a granddaughter one day!

I just wish that my Dad was there to see us all - but I know he was looking down from on high and watching us all with a heart that was bursting with love and hopefully some pride.

Sadly the day had to come to an end and we departed leaving lots of love behind.

The journey home was fine, despite there being warnings of long delays from Bristol -Taunton, and we arrived home just after 9pm - tired and ready for bed!

What with Christmas preparations and Bobs return from Paris, Ive not managed to do so much scrapping over the past few days - I have plans to finish of the decorations today and then will settle myself down to a crafty session this afternoon.

This weeks Pencil Lines sketch went live last night and here is my interpretation using papers from the Kristina Contes collection, available from SIStv, and Urban Lilly rubons.




So what did you get up to over the weekend?

T.x.x.x.x.x

D Day!

Its my D day!

Yep my baby is here and Ive been soooo tempted to get it outta the box and have a lil play - Ive charged the batteries in prep for my Christmas morning piccies and had a little fiddle, but now Hubs is insisting it goes back in the box and is left alone until the 25th!

Grrrrr......I'm throwing a temper tantrum that any 2 year old would be proud of!

How can he do this to me? How can he not let me at least have one little play???

Ah well at least Ive got the manual and Ive been reading up!

I am soooooo excited - I just want to play!

Bobs should be returning home anytime now - I'm sooooo looking forward to hearing all of his news and to be giving him a huge soppy kiss and cuddle - Ive missed him beyond belief and so have Hubs and J....in fact J said to night that he wished his Bro was here to see the Christmas Tree lights being turned on - which may sound neither here or there for some, but for me that comment meant the world and became such a watery eye moment - it means J understands the emotional meaning of being a family and that he puts a level of importance to such a simple thing as lighting up the tree - so we have decided to wait until he arrives home before we flip the switch!

Ive marshmallows ready and waiting so we can sit and melt them by the fire as we sit and watch the twinkly twhoo's sparkle on the tree and listen to Bobs tell us all about his time in gay Parre!

Have fun - be happy.

T.x.x.x.x