1/6

this will be a year of two halves for our family. The first half will be spent living in Upminster. The second half will be spent living in Babbacombe. And the first month has gone already. How did that happen? I'm feeling very anxious as there are an awful lot of balls in the air at the moment and lots of things to finish and/or set down. And a countdown that is unforgiving.

It will help a little when the MA dissertation is finally handed in. I met my supervisor this week and he didn't think it needed much changing. But I need to read one. more. book. Hopefully not all of it as it has just arrived and is 500 pages long.  And write the abstract (a version of the whole thing in about 500 words) Then resend the updated version to him, then to my lovely school friend Sian who has offered to proof read, then get it bound and then submit it. I'm sure that is all possible before the end of March. well it has to be as that is the deadline. But it does wake me up worrying in the night. I am about 7/8 through the process I reckon. And then I need not mention it again until I know if I have passed. (You may be pleased to know)

So time for crafting is still limited but it is a wonderful release when I can't really think about important stuff. (Although I wasn't quite as relaxed this week as I listened to an audio book about cannibals and mad sadists on an island. Gruesome). I managed the Daring Card for this week which had a colour theme

and here is my take on it

the colour is a little off on this. The red is not quite as in your face as it looks in real life. well all the colours are just a little more muted. The papers are all American Crafts and mostly Dear Lizzy from spring last year (or was it the year before?) Oodles of layers. The little pennants were cut from the paper. The little owls are from Paperchase and the greeting is from the Imagine That stamp set that I used on the next card...

I used some more old papers from Basic Grey (one of those pads that I then wondered why I had bought it). The trees and house are a die that my talented coDarer Nat pointed out and I couldn't resist it! This card was molto fiddly to make (but fun).

And finally (for now)


I keep looking at all the lovely stamp sets I have and don't use enough. This is a Claudine Helmuth set. Well two actually - a sponge set and an acrylic one to go over the top. They deliberately don't match but I always feel like mentioning that in the card! I made a little skirt from patterned paper. These are all MME Lime Twist papers (again using them up and really mustn't buy more as I am supposed to be downsizing) The greeting and the grid are from two Paula Pascual stamp sets, the label one fitting an EK success punch. I have had a few acrylic stamps break on me recently - including the birthday greetings from that stamp set. Anyone got any clues why?

Incidentally while writing this I nearly had heart failure. While waiting for the pictures to download I thought I better re-read the rubrics of the MA dissertation. Which mention a word count of 18,000, not 15,000 which I have been working to. Cue a fretful face and a few tears (I'm Welsh and I am temperamental) and a panicky email. But it turns out that I only have to do 15,000. Phew!