2 months and 2 days later

Now I'm really back!
I have been rather quiet I know but life is beginning to settle down again - at least for a short while so I can update you on a few things if you are interested

• Dissertation: Draft one is done and needs reading through and culling. But I am on schedule which is good. Spent a lovely 8 days writing the Diss at my Mother in Law's house where I was looked after royally. She lives in Milford on sea - one of the most gorgeous places in Britain
• Running: I have finished Couch25K and am still running three times a week. I have put on a pound or so rather than losing weight so am thinking about redoing the Shred as well. I am certainly fitter than I was. I managed a 6K run at Milford and another with sea on one side and ponds on the other side of a path. I'm afraid Upminster doesn't seem quite so scenic
• A year of two halves. Jan - Jun will involve packing up, saying goodbye, GCSE's and A levels. It may also include learning to ride a scooter. then July onwards will be hello Torquay, (hopefully) hello University, making a new home. After a bit of a rethink, I will now be making my bedroom the craft room. The room was going to be Carys' but she rather nicely gave it up (possibly because she didn't want her mum coming in to her room to make cards). It will be repainted but look at that lovely light

In other news... I had a lovely crafting day with Sue H yesterday. Because of the Dissertation I hadn't had a real day off for a while and certainly crafting for the last 2 months has not really been on the agenda (did have fab Christmas and family time so not all bad! Oh and I did knit 5 scarves as presents. no photos though)

Sue brought me lots of fabby presents including some cute stamps. I made a card with them after she left. Isn't that bunny sweet? I coloured him in with Distress Inks and a water colour pen. I am trying to use up some of my paper pads (as you will see below). This is a MME Lime Twist one. Also used loads of Nestabilites, a Sharpie pen and some stick on gems.

the rest of the cards used a Kaisercraft pad - all black, white, red and silver. This card came about because I wanted to cut the circle out of the middle and then rather liked what was left. The black panel is actually raised on thin foam pads. The middle section is Nestability die cuts plus die cuts from the pad. The greeting is PTI (my fave one for birthday cards as you may have spotted). The black dots are Ranger Enamel Accents. That swirl looks rather James Bond doesn't it.

About 2 years ago Emma at Imagine That hosted a PTI party where we brought along our stamps and swapped them. I am now using up the images! You may wonder how I got the whole border of the card embossed when the embossing folders are too small. well, I trimmed it down to be an American length card and problem solved. Also my usual crafting suspects of dies, black pen and stick on gems. The sentiment was computer generated using Papyrus font.

And this is the circle from the other paper. All from the Kaisercraft pad apart from the bird which is Paperartsy and the sentiment which is Imagine That

Finally I trimmed a border from one of the card sheets, stamped a phrase onto a die cut label from the pack and added a few glossy pen dots. Simple (good for a man). (not that men are simple)

I've even made some layouts but I shall share them another day - and not in two months I hope!

Incidentally, when I try to look things up in my new home I keep putting TS1 as the start of the postocde, rather than TQ1 and ending up with a map of Middlesborough where Hywel lives. I am obviously still missing him loads