On Life!

I can’t believe how long it’s been since I last posted here. I have no excuse really except that I have just been plodding along and trying to get my house in some sort of order since the refurb has ummm,, finished. I say that with a big pause since in my opinion it still isn’t finished. But I can live with it the way it is.

What I mean is,, there are a whole bunch of itty bitty jobs that they just never did. So I did them myself. Things like touching up paint work and filling small holes. It became just such a strain having to keep ringing them and try and get some action. If I owned the place myself and had ordered the work myself I would have stuck to my guns. But since it’s LA I just couldn’t stand the constant stream of workmen through the house. It took 4 months and I got sick of it, but I guess it was worth it,, what do you think?

The first 2 shots are of the bathroom. I love that little blue light-pull I got from Asda,, it is actually shaped as a light bulb, so cute! I made the drapes myself too, it’s white voile with a lilac flower. The next 2 shots are the toilet, although I spared you the actual toilet and just took shots of the finishings. The Micky Mouse clock was from The Disney Shop at Meadowhall. It’s years old and used to be in the kitchen, but I got new clocks for the kitchen and didn’t have the heart to get rid of this one, I love the way Mickey’s foot rocks back and forth. The last 2 are of my kitchen. I took them at night so the lighting isn’t great but you get the drift. I made the blind, table cover and curtain myself. The huge clock over the cooker was from Morrisons.I love the greenery on the shelves on the back wall and I love what I did with the 3 clocks I got from Asda. I stencilled the place names myself and so far, they have been a real talking point with visitors.

Anyway, so now the kitchen, bathroom and toilet are finished, we have to start with the rest of the house, because belive me, there isn’t a space where the dust hasn’t settled! We are currently doing the cupboard, a lick of paint and some new lino. Then we are going to do the hallway. and I guess after that it will be the living room. But that will be a major task as it’s wallpapered and a new carpet is required.

I have been doing lots of designing. I managed to finish up a couple of cute, fun kits, and some elements sets. I also did some commercial use overlays. Here is a peek at the latest stuff:

Hopefully, if you click on it you can see it bigger than that.

And here is some more

and here are a couple of layouts I did with Tropical Sunshine

If you visit my store here

You can see all these goodies and much more, and also grab this free Tropical Sunshine sampler

Now, it’s also Independence Day on 4th July. We don’t actually celebrate it here in the UK but still, I thought I would make a theme freebie for you this month.

Here you go, just click the image to download

Anyways,, I think that’s about it for now. I will try not to leave it so long till the next post.

Thanks for reading.

I just had to pop in and tell you about the new stuff I added to my store last night.

I just love my latest kit. Little Chief was inspired by the rich colours and patterns used in Native American design. And my 2 nephews, of course! I thought it would be such fun to create a themed kit where I could pop a photo of them in a tepee! But this kit can be used for any type of LO. Check out the example layouts shown. In one, I have used the fabric patches to create mountains! As usual, this kit is available as seperate element, paper and alpha packs. But if you purchase the whole kit, you will not only make a saving, you get the alpha completely free! What a deal!

Next, I created a brand new set of Bouteilles. This time, Perfume Bottles!

As usual, I have created a personal use and a commercial use set. Each set comes with a full set of perspective shadows in seperate files . The personal use set also includes a set of bottles with the shadows attached.

I also released my Kit Bit Belle Amitie, which was my contribution to the NDISB April Customer Appreciation kit. A delightful little mini kit with 4 papers, 2 word art, a bow, heart frame and buttons. Plenty of yumminess to create a few good pages!

And finally, to celebrate all this new goodness, I created not one, but 2 samplers. One is a commercial use Bouteille de Parfum,, which can be used any which way you want, just not resold as is. And the 2nd is a sampler of Little Chief,, which co-ordinates perfectly with the kit, so if you get the kit, make sure you get the sampler too.

Sorry, no longer available

You can find all these yummy goodies in my store RIGHT HERE

Thanks so much for looking

Where is this year going? Anyone know? I find it really scary how fast time just goes. I am still struggling to get my house straight after the refurb in my kitchen and bathroom. No pics yet, sorry. I have boxes everywhere as I am desperately trying to unpack everything and get it back into the cupboards. It’s a long slow process, not least because I can only do so much before I need to rest, but also because I am washing everything before it goes away. And I mean everything, every cup, towel, sheet and dish cloth! You would not believe the dust that has just settled in every single place in the house.

We don’t have any more news yet on my Uncle, we had the cremation a couple of weeks ago, but we still have this gap of a week missing and we have no idea where he was in that time or even what the date/time of death is. I find it all very strange, I didn’t think it was possible to cremate someone without a death certificate, and you can’t have a death certificate without a date of death. I can’t help but wonder if we are being told everything there is to know. It’s all this mystery that is eating away at my Mum.

Have you heard the buzz over at NDISB? Susan, one of our fab CT ladies, is running FREE Genealogy classes and everyone is getting involved. Susan is very talented and has lots of experience in this field, she is guiding people through the process of finding their family history, from what software to select, to where and how to find information. And also setting scrapping challenges along the way. I was asked if I could create some newspaper elements and I was happy to oblige, but a few elements turned into a full blown kit, then I approached one of my colleagues at the store, fellow designer Barb Speck, to collab with me. Barb has a totally different style to me and I thought together, we could create a huge kit which would have everything you needed to scrap your family history! And I was right, take a look: the first is just my part of the kit, available as seperate element and paper packs or the full kit. The 2nd is the full collab. You can make great savings if you purchase either the full kit or the whole collab.

 

and here are some more new goodies just added to the store, Powder Puff, an unashameadly girly kit, Flags Of The World, a personal and Designer Resource, Child’s Play, a fun kit with a vintage feel, and 2 more additions to my Prte-a-Portez Template Collection. This is just a small selection of the goodness available in my store, and more new stuff is on the way! Go take a look see

The May newsletter has just gone out and this is the May birthstone kit, it will be available in store to purchase next month.

and finally, here is your May blog gift, a set of 4 papers and 4 wrapped frames, I hope you like it

Click the preview to download

Oh, and I almost forgot, I have a new freebie in my store at NDISB too, a newspaper template to match Family Roots

Go get it

That’s it for now, thanks for reading

B x

Come and play with us at and collect the parts to this wonderful kit, created by our fab designers.

You won’t want to miss this, over 230 MB of goodness and cute stuff.

Check out the forum for the clues on where to look and if you get stuck, post a hint request.

AND, as a special bonus, there will be an extra bit of fun to win one of Dawn’s fabulous kits!

Wow,, and,, and,, not only all that,, we have special challenges and fun planned all day,,,

AND a massive storewide 50% off sale!

Sassy got me, lol!
1:) Four jobs that I’ve had:
Assembler in a factory : Retail Assistant : Customer Service Manager : IT Support

2:) Four movies I could watch over and over:
Pay It Forward : Bridge To Terabithia : Elizabeth : Kes

3:) Four places I’ve lived:
Rotherham, UK : Warilla, Australia : Mont Albert, Australia : Braithwell, UK

4:) Four shows I love:
Eastenders : Dragon’s Den : Little Britain : Homes Under The Hammer

5:) Four people who email me regularly:
Donna : Lorene : NDISB : Margaret

6:) Four fave foods:
Bacon : Crisps : Iceberg Lettuce : Pizza

7:) Four places I’d rather be:
Bendigo, Australia : In Bed : At My Mum’s : In the Yorkshire Dales

8:) Four people I’m tagging:
Dawn : Retta : Jill : Dunia

Kitchen Update

My kitchen is finished! Umm, hang on, let me rephrase that! THEY think they have finished my kitchen! Yes, that’s more like it. I haven’t seen a workman since last Thursday. That day was an absolute nightmare. After no activity at the beginning of the week, I had to throw yet another hissy fit. Then, Wednesday and Thursday I couldn’t move in my own house for workmen. They were doing all sorts of things, laying floors, boxing-in, painting. Oh, a ‘finisher’ did come on Friday, this guy was supposed to clean all the crap off my window frames, fill any odd holes that had been left, touch paint work up, that sort of thing. At the weekend, I had to go out and buy paint and filler, and lots of cleaning stuff, so I could do all this myself. Then of course, I have to clean all the cupboards and start putting things back. So no pics yet, but soon hopefully.

Sad news

My Uncle, one of my Mum’s brothers, went missing on 11th april. He was a keen walker and spent hours walking around South Yorkshire’s beauty spots. On Saturday 19th April, he was found dead at Damflask Reservoir near Sheffield. Where he has been in the week since he went missing is a mystery to us. The following is a clip from last night’s Sheffield Star, if anyone reading this has seen my Uncle or can throw any light on the last few days of his life, please do contact me.

As always, thanks for reading

Just a quick post to let you know I have a couple of new products in store. First is this lovely, bright and cheerful kit. Floralie is huge and lots of fun, check it out at my NDISB store now. Get the whole collection to make a huge saving of $4.49!

 This is an animated image, click on it to see the full collection!

Next, I have a fun new element pack, a set of 12 zodiac signs. I just love how these turned out.

 Click the image to see the full set in close up!

No pics of my kitchen this time, we seem to have hit a standstill again! I really felt it was coming on at the end of last week but so far this week, nothing has happened. Nothing good anyway! The joiners came on Monday, but when I went in later I discovered they had taken every cupboard off the kitchen walls and raised them another inch,, so each cupboard now has 8 holes in the back and I have an ugly gap between the bottom of the cupboard and the top of the tiles. I am just speechless and so upset. When I complained, I was told they had to do it as the council has a standard height. Since then, no one has been to do anymore. Payback I guess. Complain and we leave you alone for a few days! I just feel so stressed, my stomach is in constant knots and I have a horrible headache that just won’t go away.

It’s all supposed to be finished by Friday, checked and signed off. I think not!

On a brighter note, I have added a gallery to the site. Feel free to post your layouts there. I would love to see any layouts using my products but it is an open gallery, no restrictions. So let’s see some lovely artwork! It’s linked to the blog, store and the main site now. Link is in the panel on the left. I have some work to do on the look but all in good time. I won’t be changing too much as I like the clean white look of things.

That’s it for now. Be back soon, as always, thanks for reading.

B x

Update on the Comedy Show,,,

that is my kitchen and bathroom refit! Well I guess if you look at the 2nd pic, it would seem that things are moving on a bit. I have cupboards, I even have paint on my walls. I still don’t have my floor and fascia boards so there is too much dusty work yet to be able to actually put anything in the cupboards! The boxing in around the boiler needs to be done, and although the painting has been done, I am missing half my skirting boards and there are some rough patches around the boiler which should have been tidied up before painting!

In the bathroom, I now have tiles, no shower, no floor, no ceiling, the chipped bath has been replaced. And you can see from the first pic what amess the skirting and pipes are in. This all needs boxing in. It’s Friday now so another week ends and I still can’t see an end to it. Ask me if I’m fed up? No don’t,, I might just lose it!!!!

The last pic is just an example of what I have to clear up at the end of each day! They do make some effort to clean up, but not to my standard, this is what I swept out from under the cupboards, which no doubt would have been hidden behind the fascia boards, some time! This little pile also contains some chunks of used toilet tissue,, whether it was used for nose blowing, mopping water up, or other purposes, I dread to think, but had I not ‘found’ it, it would have been under my kitchen cupboards for all time, disgusting!

New Stuff in Store

I got a couple of exciting new things in store this week. My collection of Bouteilles is a fun element pack of 10 bottles in a variety of shapes and sizes. You can add a label and journal on them, fill them with goodies, decorate them with ribbons, strings, tags, whatever you wish! The set comes with a full set of perspective shadows, both attached to the bottles, and seperate, so you have complete versatility on how you use them. Check out this fun and whimsical layout I made using one of my bottles, and the Land of Make Believe kit by Dawn Inskip, one of my fellow designers at NDISB!

I also created a Commercial Use set of these bottles and they also come with seperate perspective shadows. No credit is required on this product. You must alter them in some way but that could be as simple as recolouring, or you can go the whole hog and fill them up or fancy them up, your choice!

Next is a fun set of Love Promises, this set contains 8 tokens which can be used on your digital layouts, printed and used for hybrid products, or given to your loved one to promise them you will do something nice for them. Better yet, leave them lying around and maybe they will promise you instead! 8 completed tokens, 8 blank tokens, which can also be used as tags, and 8 promises as seperate files.

Family

My sister and nephews arrived home safely on Friday, (Oz time) and I have spoken to them a couple of times on the phone. I rang this morning specifically to speak to Jay as he was asleep the other day. He told me he would be over to see me soon! Bless him, he doesn’t understand the distance at all. Sam came to the phone and managed Hello, but pressed a few buttons and then ran off cos he knew he had done something wrong! It’s these little things I miss so much. They are such adorable boys and I hate not seeing them every day.

My furbaby Simba has been quite poorly. I took him to the vet and he was diagnosed with a tummy upset and stress and a heart murmur. He had 3 injections and some tablets which I had to cut into quarters and give him twice a day. He didn’t really start eating properly until the weekend 9maybe he was enjoying me trying to tempt him with fresh fish and chicken) and his toilet habits are still not right. But he is heaps better and finally on the mend. I don’t think he will be fully back to normal until we get the house back to normal. I’ve been so worried about him.

Your April Gift

I sent out my March (I know, I Know) newsletter this morning. This one had 2 free kits inside! So if you want to get them, sign up now, drop me a quick email to let me know and I will send you a copy of the newsletter. Here are the previews

and finally, here yis your April blog gift. A pack of 10 papers, 5 with a shabby chic flower pattern and 5 solid cardstock. I also included a bonus ribbon wrap, frame, and a couple of flower decos. I hope you like it. Just click the image to start the download.

Sorry, no longer available

Thanks for reading

B x

Senior Moment

I just had one of those senior moments! I logged in here to put up this post and was mooching around in my admin, wondering why nothing looked like it should and I didnn’t recognise any of my posts or comments, only to realise I had logged into the NDISB blog instead, lol.

Kitchen/Bathroom Update

I haven’t taken any recent photos of my house because it hasn’t changed! Can you believe it? It’s now 5 weeks,, yes, 5 weeks since they started the work and still no sign of it being finished. I am appalled and to be honest, I think they are a bunch of cowboys! Unfortunately I have no control over it as the flat is local authority and they ordered the work. That doesn’t mean I’m not paying for it though,, I will pay in time in my rent. These are just a few of the problems we have had so far, apart from just the length of time it takes to do the work:

Before any of it started, I stiplulated I did not want the ceilings in my kitchen and bathroom plastering. All the other ceilings are stippled and rather than have 2 flat ceilings, I said I would rather they left them. I came out of my living room on Thursday and guess what I saw being done? Yep, you guessed,, scraping all the stipple off the bathroom ceiling!

I asked for the holes to be left in my walls for the shelves to be screwed back up, they only needed to stick a match or something in them. but no, they have plastered over them.

They have fitted the cupboards in the kitchen and they are higher than they used to be. This means all the wall cupboards are also higher, I can live with this, even though it now means I will have to get a step stool to reach anything on the top shelves. BUT, this meant there wasn’t enough clearance room for the boiler to be serviced, so they decided it had to be raised. They did this, and then couldn’t get the flu to fit, so they had to fit a new boiler. Of course the new one is not as good as the old one was. Cheaper and a lesser known brand. Then last night, because it turned bitterly cold, we noticed we only had one radiator working in the whole flat.

Last week, they left on the Wednesday and din’t come back all week. When I went to do my washing on Saturday morning, I discovered they hadn’t plumbed the washer back in!

They went home one night and didn’t wire my cooker in.

They took out the bath, found all the floor was rotten, even non existent in places, and rather than replace it, they put 2 plinthes across the joists and sat the bath on them. This made the bath a good 2 inches higher so I really struggled to get in it. I made them fix the floor and put the bath back, but guess what? In doing so, they have chipped the new bath, so that will now have to be replaced.

It’s taken 2 weeks to fit the cupboards in the kitchen and even now, they aren’t finished. I have a handle missing and another one damaged, no fascia boards, no tiles. I had a cupboard go missing and a drawer was broken. I could go on but I think you get the picture. I feel like I am living in some sort of sick comedy show. And the worst thing is that in 3 years of marriage, Pete and I have never had a cross word. But since this started, we have had 2 pretty big fall outs and lots of snappy sessions. I have also had an asthma attack almost every night.

My furbabies are upset too. Simba keeps being sick and their toilet habits are all upset. Every morning, I get up and dressed and shut myself and the cats in the living room. They are house cats and are scared of strangers and noise. So in there with me is the safest place for them. But I feel like I have lived in that one room for the last 5 weeks. And there is nowhere in the house that isn’t stacked with stuff, dust and mess. I want my life back!!

Family

My beautiful sister and gorgeous little nephews are going back home to Australia on Wednesday. I have already had some tears. Last Monday we went to a play barn and the boys had a ripping time. I loved watching then running around and letting off steam. As we were leaving I got very upset because it just suddenly hit me that I wouldn’t be able to take them again. I have tried to treat them and take them as many places as possible. It feels like I have tried to cram a lifetime into 3 short months.

Everything Else

I probably shouldn’t say this but my PC seems to have stabilised now. A whole week with no crashes and I just about have everything installed again. I have a problem with PSPX2 but I mentioned it in the forum at DST and Jane Bradbury replied with a tip so I will try that. Thanks Jane! I haven’t had much chance to do any designing, with the PC crashing and the ADSR, but I have things in the works and hope to finish up a bunch of stuff soon.

Anyway, if you got this far, you deserve a reward, lol. I made a little Easter gift for you. Here it is, just click the pic to download. I hope you like it!

Don’t forget that all this months freebies are still available, scroll down to the March 2nd post for the links.

I hope you and your families enjoy a happy, healthy and peaceful Easter together. Oh, and I hope you get lots of chocolate!

Thanks for reading

B x

in fact I did! When the workmen left yesterday, this was the mess I had to clean up. Oh yes, they did clean up after themseleves. But they are supposed to leave things in a clean and useable state and I don’t think this qualifies, do you? And why? why do they not think to cover your cooker and fridge up? The 2nd shot is the carpet just leading into my living room and this was just from me walking in and out and trailing the dust and everything in. I wasn’t happy and spent the whole evening cleaning. I can’t wait till it’s done.

   

Just a quick post to let you know I fixed the linkf for Mini Treasure 01. So sorry about that, and thanks to Lori for letting me know

Bx