Tuesday 25 December 2012

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

I'd just like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! I hope you all have a wonderful day and get lots of lovely presents!!

I thought I'd share one of my favourite Christmas songs with you, 'The Christmas Song' sung by Nat King Cole, enjoy!!


Have a wonderful day!

Erica

=)

Monday 17 December 2012

Lili's Little Fairies Challenge - 'Something New'

Hello!

Quick post for the last Lili's Little Fairies challenge of the year, can't believe another year's gone already! =/

The theme for this challenge is 'Something New' so I decided to go for a new baby card.
One of my oldest friend, Laura, who I've known since she was born (23 years!), and fiance, Geoff, are having a baby boy in March, well we think it's a boy, her brother Christ and his wife were told they were having a boy and had a girl so fingers crossed they've got it right!


I decided just to use the LOTV Babies Companion Set for this one, partly to avoid colouring anything and partly because I love the set! I've also used the Petal Fresh pad from LOTV as well, I think it's my favourite out of the flowery ones.
I stuck the sentiment panel and it's background on with 1mm and 2mm foam pads and did the same with the stitched star and heart which were cut out with the smallest circles in Spellbinders Standard Circles Small and Large. I then added a few buttons and I think it's come out quite well.

Hope you like it!

On a very exciting note, I've actually finished all of my Chrimble shopping, hooray! Now there's only a couple of little presents to finish making for my sister and then I can wrap everything! =D It's only taken two shopping trips too which I was very happy about because I hate going into Leeds City Centre on a quite day never mind a week before Christmas! But's it's done now so I can start feeling properly Christmassy and I'll just have to hope it doesn't snow a lot so I can get to Mum's on the 23rd!

Anywho, hope you like the card!

Erica

=)

Tuesday 4 December 2012

Less is More 'Red and Green' Challenge

Can't believe I haven't posted anything since the 22nd! Oops! =( But I have been making Christmas presents so it's not as if I haven't been doing anything at all!

Anywho, the card I've got today is for the latest challenge over at Less is More and this week's theme is 'Red and Green'. I tried to not make a Christmas card but it just ended up that way anyway!




I randomly cut a strip from one edge of a 6x6 card and ended up with a 4x6. The papers are Lili of the Valley's 'Classic Christmas' paper pad, the sentiment is also LOTV from Set 33 'Christmas Grungy Messages' stamped on plain white card and coloured round the edge with Ruby and then Ivory, Sunflower, Forest Green and Pumpkin Promarkers. The string is from my stash and the cute little reindeer charm is from The Hobby House.

Hope you like it!

Erica =)

Thursday 22 November 2012

LOTV Sneak Peek 'Bath Time'

Hello!

Another little Sneak Peek for LOTV today, this time with the gorgeous 'Bath Time'. This little one will be available this coming Saturday 24th at the Christmas Open Day at LOTVs shop in Farsley along with the other 18 brand new baby stamps and cute Baby Companion Set! They will all be available on the website from Sunday 25th.




I coloured the image with Promarkers using: Tan, Caramel, Baby Pink, Pink Carnation, Satin, Ivory, Vanilla, Mustard, Khaki, Pastel Beige, Sunflower, Canary, Cool Grey 1, 3 and 4 and Warm Grey 2 and 4.
The 'Baby Girl' stamp are from the new Baby Companion Set. The papers are 'Fly A Kite' from My Minds Eye and 'A Walk in the Park' from Echo Park. I added a bit of shine to the bubbles with Glossy Accents, the ribbon is available from the LOTV Farsley shop, the button are from my stash and I used Spellbinders Classic Scalloped Circles Large.

Hope you like it!


Erica

=)

Friday 16 November 2012

Less is More Challenge 'One Layer - Houses'

Evening!

A quick post for a blog challenge that I have decided to have a go at, 'Less is More' and Chrissie, who started the blog, is our November guest DT member at LOTV.

The challenge for this week is 'One Layer' with the theme of 'Houses' and I immediately thought of the perfect stamp which has been sitting in a bag since the GNPE at Harrogate!


The stamp is 'At Home' by Little Claire Designs, the actual stamp is quite a bit bigger than just this cute little house but I thought that just simply stamping it in the corner with the sentiment (also from 'At Home') looked really effective. I thought some nice bright colours would be perfect for it so I coloured it with Amethyst, Bright Orange, Sunflower, Poppy, Berry Red, Forest Green, Aegean and Vanilla Promarkers.

I've always been a bit wary of having quite a simple card because they always tend to look a little boring but this one has worked really well so I'm really pleased with it.

Hope you like it!

Erica

=)

Tuesday 13 November 2012

LOTV Playtime Puppy Sneak Peek


Evening! I will gloss over not posting for a while and get straight to my latest card! =)

Anne suggested last week that I should do a sneak peek for the new launch that we have coming out at the end of November which is full of gorgeous baby and animal stamps! There were a few that hadn't been picked yet so I picked the gorgeously cute 'Playtime Puppy'.


I coloured the image with Promarkers and the bear is Cool Grey 1 and 3, Baby Pink, Ivory and Vanilla. The puppy is Cool Grey 3 and 5 (he looks a bit brown in the picture), Tan and Pink. The blocks are Vanilla with Baby Pink and Cool Aqua over the top and Vanilla letters and the floor is Tan.

The little bunny and the stitching are both from the baby Companion Set that's coming out at the same time too! I absolutely LOVE the stitching, I can see me using it all the time as it's perfect to edge a 6x6 card!

The cutouts are Spellbinders Labels 2, the gorgeous bunting paper is Dove Crafts 'Tea Party', the green insert and the gingham are from my stash and the buttons are from The Hobby House (I think!).

Anywho, I hope you like it, still need to work on my colouring but I don't think he's come out too badly!


Erica

=)

Wednesday 26 September 2012

Flower Power

Just a quick post for my card for the Lili's Little Fairies blog challenge. This week it's 'Flower Power' so I decided to us one of LOTV's gorgeous bear stamps called 'Patchwork Daisy'.


I decided to try some paper piecing which I've never done before just to see how successful it would be and it seems to have turned out really well. I stamped him on to LOTV's amazing new paper pads 'Petal Fresh', for his body, flower and backing and teeny bits from one of the papers in 'Bonnets and Bowties' for his nose and the pads on his paws. I cut around the inside of the stamped image so I didn't have to go around his fuzzy bits and then stamped him again on plain white card and stuck all the pieces down in the right places! The two tickets are Tim Holtz 'Adage Tickets'.

Hope you like him!

Erica

=)

Sunday 16 September 2012

Worst Blogger in the World!

Can't believe I haven't posted anything since the 18th of August! Actually, I can, I blame moving house...and laziness! =/

But anywho, yes, I have finally moved house! It ended up being a bit of a nightmare at the old house what with one thing an another but never mind, glad to be out of there now. The new house is fantastic, it's so much nicer than the last one which just looked like a student house (which it was) Housemates are really nice too, we all keep to ourselves a little bit but none of us mind that. My bedroom is so much bigger than the shoebox I was in before and there's actually room for more than one person in the kitchen at once! I'll pop pictures on when half the rooms aren't covered in boxes of people's things.

Right, on to something crafty. I've decided that I need something to make myself make things so I'm going to start doing challenges. I've started with the Lili's Little Fairies challenge which this week is 'Embellishment Bingo'


I decided to go for a horizontal line with glitter, buttons and ribbon and this is how it ended up:


I picked one of the images from Lili of the Valley's Mini Masterpieces sheet 26, the sentiment is from LOTV's Set 28 Vintage Labels - Occasions sentiments. The chevron paper is Papermania 'Happy Days' and the dotty paper is LOTV 'Petal Fresh'. The buttons, ribbon and gems are from my stash.
I didn't intend it to be a baby boy card, nobody I know is having a baby just yet but it worked out well anyway.

I also randomly made a little bow tie for the dog yesterday! I haven't quite finished it yet, I'm waiting for my sister to give me his collar measurements but I'll post pictures when I get it on him because he will look so gorgeous! =D

Erica

=)

Saturday 18 August 2012

Very Exciting News!!

As I've probably mentioned before I'm currently living with my sister and our housemate SJ in a student house in Burley in Leeds, well, at the end of the month we all have to move out, my sister is going to Edge Hill in Ormskirk to study Animation and SJ has a top up year for her course and I haven't been a student for two years!

SJ and I were planning on moving in together but while I was looking for somewhere I found the most gorgeous house in Armley which isn't too far from where we are now and it's not too far from work either so it was kind of perfect! The room I have is so much bigger than the one I'm in now because I have an attic room and it's tiny, there's a garden, with grass and plants an everything, we've only got a path and gravel at the moment as we're in back-to-back terraces!

I signed for it this morning and got the keys so now all I have to do is pack everything here, go home to Mum's over the bank holiday next week and pack everything there and then I can move in! I'm so excited! I want to move in now it's so annoying!
I'll update you on that later on, including some pictures. I didn't want to say anything before in case I jinxed it! =)

Anywho, here's a little Exploding Box I made the other day using some of the gorgeous new papers we have at LOTV.




Is was a little fiddly getting the flowers to stay in the right place as the box is only 1.5 inches high when it's closed (not including the flowers) so I just stuck the flowers on, closed it up and stuck the lid on and waited until the flowers had dried!

The cute little bear is from the Summer Bears Companion stamp set from LOTV, the papers are from the 'Bonnets and Bowties' paper pad from NitWits and LOTV, the sentiments are also from LOTV's 'Sentiments Tags' which I raised slightly on foam pads, the flowers are from Wild Orchid and the little pearly bits are from my stash.

I hope you like it! I think I'll have to take it to work to put in the shop because I don't want it to get squished while I move!!

EEEEEEEEE!!!! Can't wait to move!! =D

Erica

=)

Sunday 5 August 2012

Very Bad Posting...But a Little Lantern to 'Light the Way'!

Hello! I know, it's been ages since I posted anything, there's no excuse really other than I haven't really had anything very interesting to post! There are a few things to tell you about but this is just a quick post to share a couple of things.

First, my bed is apparently very comfy because SJ fell asleep on it a few days ago and Robyn is asleep on it at the moment! (Excuse the bad photo, I had to use the webcam because, as you can see, my camera and my phone are both on the bed with Robyn and I didn't want to wake her up! My room is also not a mess, it just looks it in this picture!)


She is very tired though as she works delivery so she's been up since 4 this morning and we're going to see The Dark Knight Rises later on so she's having a nap first!

Second thing I want to share, there is a competition on at the moment on the LOTV blog (here) and the Facebook page (here) that is running until 9th August for 'Anything But a Card' and two lucky winners picked at random will win a £15 voucher and the favourite entry will win a £25 voucher!
There will be a set of winners picked from the Facebook page AND the blog but you will only be able to enter on one or the other, not both. All the details are on the blog or FB page!

I thought I would share something I made to give you a little inspiration (because I'm sure you can do much better that me!) I didn't intentionally make this lantern as an example as I'd made it a little before the competition but the timing seems to have worked out quite well!




The stamp is 'Light the Way' from the new LOTV Christmas launch and coloured with Promarkers (Marsh Green, Ruby, Tan, Vanilla, Blush, Khaki, Cool Grey 1, Cool Grey 4, Forrest Green, Canary). The stars in the ground are from LOTV's 'Twinkling Star' stamp turned the other way up!
The little snowman and Christmas Tree are Hero Arts 'Merry Messages' and the little Santa and reindeer are from one of the stamps from LOTV's Grunge Christmas Postmarks set.

Considering I'm not very good at colouring, I think it turned out quite well but I still need quite a bit of practice!!

Think that's everything for now but there should be a few more updates soon!

Erica

=)

Sunday 8 July 2012

Poor Andy Murray!

Well done Roger Federer for winning his 7th Wimbledon title!! And Well done Andy Murray for reaching the final!! Didn't think the match was too exciting by the end but it was great to start with.

God bless Andy Murray! The only emotion I thought he had was miserable but him crying was so sweet!! Bless him!

Photo: EPA www.telegraph.co.uk
Well done Roger!!

Erica

=)


Almost Killed Myself on My Housemate's Shoes!

Teeny bit of a moan to start with, sorry! First of all, I may have to kill housemate SJ! She is not the tidiest of people at all, her things are literally all over the house; shoes and clothes in the sitting room, four bags of things in the basement she hasn't missed since Robyn put them down there in October, Lush products everywhere in the bathroom and shoes and other bits on the corner of the stairs! It was this pile of stuff that I nearly killed myself on yesterday after slipping on the shoes and sliding halfway down the stairs, I now have a huge bruise on my bum where I landed on the edge of the step and half of my foot has gone purple where I hit the wall! =( Not happy at all! I can't even make her move everything because she's at a festival all weekend.

On the plus side this weekend, the gorgeously charming Tom Hiddleston as Prince Hal in Shakespeare's Henry IV was brilliant and I actually understood what was going on! Did not understand Shakespeare in Secondary School at all and I'm really looking forward to the next two parts.

Also very exciting, Britain's Jonathan Marray and Denmark's Frederik Nielsen won the Men's Doubles at Wimbledon yesterday!! Yey! =D It was such a great match and it was the first time a Danish man has won a singles or doubles final and the first time since 1936 a Brit has won a men's title!!

Jonathan Marray and Frederik Nielsen © Gallo Images www.supersport.com

Hopefully it's a sign that Murray is going to win! I've got everything crossed at the moment as Murray is has just broken Federer's serve in the first game!

Erica

=)

Saturday 7 July 2012

New Bits at Lili of the Valley!

We've been having a fun few weeks at LOTV getting all sorts of gorgeous new crafty bits in the shop! It looks really good now, not that it didn't before but there's so much more in it looks brilliant!

We've now got Wild Orchid flowers, which everyone has been asking about, Tim Holtz Distress Inks, Spellbinders Dies, Martha Stewart punches, Promarkers and Flexmarkers and lots of other lovely craft goodies! I think we've all fallen out with the Wild Orchid flowers a bit though, trying to arrange them into bowls is apparently ridiculously difficult as they just keep falling out!


You'll have to ignore the 'We're open on Saturday...' above, I tried to post this yesterday but the internet wasn't working again, stupid thing! Everyone who has been in so far has said the shop looks wonderful and hopefully we'll get lots and lots of people in!

Anywho, think that's everything for now!

Erica

=)

Monday 25 June 2012

'Wit Beyond Measure...' and New Summer Bears at LOTV!

Evening! The internet has decided to work for now but it will probably turn itself off in the middle of posting this so I'd better hurry up!

Firstly, exciting news! Signed up for Pottermore today (yes, that's right! Pottermore!) I love Harry Potter, they are such amazing books! I still cry like a five year old at them all the time! For anyone who doesn't know what it is, basically Pottermore is a website where you go through all seven books, chapter by chapter looking for extra bits of information written by J.K. about different characters, creatures and places in the HP universe as well as finding Galleons, Chocolate Frog cards, spell books and ingredients to use in potions. You can also duel, cast spells and brew potions to earn house points and every year (I'm assuming) the cup is awarded to the house with the most points.
In Chapter 5, 'The Sorting Hat' you get sorted into your house after answering a series of questions about what would scare you the most, what you would hate people to say about you, that sort of thing. I was sorted into Ravenclaw which annoyed my sister just a tiny bit because she was sorted into Slytherin!

(Found at http://everythingharrypotter.tumblr.com)

She managed to get to be a Beta tester for Pottermore before it went live on the internet so she's going to do it again to see it'll put her in a different house. I really hope she gets sorted into Slytherin again! (I'm so mean!) =D

The one thing that annoyed me though was that the first time I signed up I got to pick my user name which was WizardChaser(and a load of numbers I've forgotten) and then I realised I'd put my e-mail in wrong so had to do it again and it gave me a name which is really boring, UnicornMirror31199 (If anyone wants to add me as a friend), so slightly annoyed about that!

It's not the most taxing of things to work through, I've been on it for about two hours and I've got through the first book already. It is still being Beta tested as people are playing it so hopefully it will get a bit more exciting.


Anywho, the actual reason I'm posting is because our new Summer Bears launched today at LOTV so head on over to the website and grab some of our gorgeous bears! Posy Trio has got to be my favourite and the Companion Set is so unbelievably cute!


Anywho, think that's everything for now, I'm off back to Pottermore to earn some house points!

Erica

=)


Friday 22 June 2012

Time and Relative Dimensions in Space!

Something a teeny bit geeky today!
Had the sudden urge to make this the other day while watching Whitechapel, not sure why it was in the middle of that particular programme but never mind! Anywho, I'd seen a Space Invaders one months ago and randomly remembered it the other day so here is my woven TARDIS:


I first saw the Space Invaders woven picture on Pinterest months ago and forgot to re-pin it but managed to find it again here at Minieco.co.uk (http://www.minieco.co.uk/geeky-weaves/) She also has lots of cute, brightly coloured crafts for kids (and adults!) as well as eco-crafts.

I made mine with quilling paper so it took a little while to get them all in the right place!

I started with a piece of A5 card and measured out 5mm strips across it, (the same width as the quilling paper) and then cut along them with a craft knife.
I then just started weaving the papers between the strips with a picture of the TARDIS as a reference to get the dimensions right and carried on until I'd finished!

I ended up having to re-arrange things a little bit because I'd made the instructions panel a little too wide and the light on the top a bit small. I had to stick the strips down as well because they had been bent in half so they weren't lying flat but as a first attempt I think it went quite well.

I want to make lots more in different colours now and my sister wants me to make her one as well, I think I'll do it with bigger strips!


Erica

=)

Wednesday 20 June 2012

Modern Technology!

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, my internet decided it was going to be an idiot for the week and despite having perfect signal, wouldn't open any pages saying it couldn't connect. It's now working so lets see how long this lasts!!

Friday 8 June 2012

Last Minute Cards (thanks SJ!)

Helloo!!!
A few cards for you today all using die cut images from Lili of the Valley (of course!). I love using die cuts because aside from the fact that I really can't colour very well, they're great if have a few last minute ones to make and they're nice and quick so you have more time to make more!

The reason for these cards, aside from being gorgeous images, is this:

Phone rings at 8pm, it's housemate SJ.
SJ: "Ericaaaa?"
Me: "Yeeees?"
SJ: "You know you said you'd make me some cards for Dad and Grandma and Donna's birthdays?"
Me: "Yeeees?"
SJ: "Can you make me some?"
Me: "When for?"
SJ: "You won't like it"
Me: "Tomorrow?"
SJ: (Quietly) "Yes"
Me: (Jokingly annoyed) "Tut! I supposed so"
SJ: "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I'll reward you with some sort of baked good!"

I made the cards but I'm still waiting for the baked goods!

The first card I made was for her Dad and I think it's my favourite of the three (even though it should say 'birthday wishes for you with love' but I stuck them the wrong way round! Didn't want to ruin it by trying to get them off again!)


Recipe:
Die Cut: Lili of the Valley 'Take it Easy' die cut sheet.
Sentiments: Lili of the Valley Set 24 'Sentiments Tags'
Papers: K and Co. Classic K McKenna Mat Pad

The die cut was raised off the backing with foam pads, as were the sentiments and the patterned green paper was stuck directly to the card. The corners were rounded by hand because I couldn't find my corner punch and the sentiments were cut out by hand as well.


The second was for her Grandma and although it was little tricky getting the colours to coordinate, I think it worked quite well.


Recipe:
Die Cut: Lili of the Valley 'Fairies' die cut sheet
Sentiment: Lili of the Valley Set 25 'Handwritten Sentiments'
Papers: K and Co. Hopscotch Boy Mat Pad

The plain green backing, the die cut and the sentiment were all raised using foam pads.


The last card was for SJ's Step-mum, Donna, who likes pink and has a Jack Russell so the die cut SJ picked was perfect for her.


Recipe:
Die Cut: Lili of the Valley 'It's a Girl Thing'
Sentiments: Lili of the Valley Set 23 'Girlie Banners'
Papers: Check: K and Co. Hopscotch Girl Mat Pad
            Flowers: K and Co. Brenda Walton Small Wonders Girl

The rounded corners were done by hand again and the sentiments were cut by hand again too (which was lots of fun!)

Anywho! Hope you like them, I think they worked out quite well seeing as I was watching Iron Man 1 and 2 at the same time!

Erica

=)




Sunday 3 June 2012

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee

Congratulations to her Majesty The Queen on her Diamond Jubilee!!

This has got to be my favourite picture of the Queen, laughing as she passes Prince Philip in uniform.


Copyright belongs to the original photographer but unfortunately I'm not sure who that is!
Originally found here:
http://princessdianafrances.tumblr.com/post/16318782334

Saturday 2 June 2012

Official Diamond Jubilee Song

A little treat for you today, the offical Diamond Jubilee song by Gary Barlow and the Commonwealth Band featuring Military Wives. Enjoy!!


(If the video doesn't load, follow this link to watch it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ah_Yf7ey1Q)

Friday 1 June 2012

Diamond Jubilee Weekend!!

Afternoon!! I know! First post in about three months, very bad Erica! I still haven't got used to doing things everyday!

Anywho, in case anyone didn't know(!) it's the Queen's Diamond Jubilee this weekend and at LOTV we have some fantastic offers on from 12am Saturday until 11.59pm on tuesday so click on the picture below to head on over to the website and grab some goodies!!

Thursday 9 February 2012

In a Hole in the Ground...

Just thought I'd share this with you! The greatest, geekiest, most amazingest thing I have seen in ages!!
Sherlock and The Hobbit! Could not get any cooler than this!! =D


Not sure where it is from originally but I found it on Pintrest from http://bbcsherlockftw.tumblr.com/page/294

Wednesday 8 February 2012

Not My Week!!

Sorry but this is going to be a bit of moan!

As you probably know by now I'm cat/house sitting for my friends Jo and Krissie who are in Australia and actually get back this Saturday and everything has been absolutely fine until this week! Monday morning I woke up to find the overflow pipe at the back of the house pouring water and assumed that it was actually melted snow from the weekend but no! It is now Wednesday night and it is still pouring water and is now flooding next door's garden. Somehow because of this there is no hot water at all so I can't wash any clothes, I have not had a proper shower since Sunday night and I am currently boiling a fourth kettle of water the be able to wash my hair in the kitchen sink...again!
The estate agents I rang on Tuesday have tried to contact the landlady but she still hasn't got back to them so if she doesn't, they're going to have to send someone out to fix it.

Also, the one plant in the whole house has decided it is going to die on my all of a sudden so I'm going to have to find an Umbrella Tree somewhere AND this morning on the way to work, neither of the buses I could get turned up so I had to walk an hour in the freezing cold to get to work an hour late!

Right, moan over! I'm going to watch some Sherlock to cheer me up (but not The Reichenbach Fall, I'll just cry!)


Erica

=)

Sunday 5 February 2012

Blog Header

Three posts in one day!! I'm on a roll!! =D

In case you're wondering about the header for the blog I still haven't figured out how I want it to look. I've tried lots of free ones from some gorgeous blogs but they just don't seem to fit and nothing looks right. Unfortunately I don't have Photoshop or anything to be able to create my own so I'm still working on it!

Erica

=)

First Quilt Block!!

I've wanted to start patchwork for ages but every book I've read or anything I've found on the internet was if you already knew what you were doing, knew how to read a piecing pattern and I was starting to get a little annoyed. Luckily a new part work magazine came out a few weeks ago called The Art of Quilting and I bought the first issue to see if it started from a reasonable level and it seems to be the perfect thing if you're just starting!

I managed to make the block that they provided the fabric for without much difficulty, (aside from the odd cat getting in the way of the sewing machine) and it seems to have come out rather well! A couple of the pieces don't match up by about a millimetre but it doesn't seem to have thrown the rest out of line!


Anywho, I've subscribed to the magazine (you get lots of free goodies!) so we'll just have to see how it goes! Unfortunately, the magazine is weekly if you buy it in a newsagents but is delivered every four weeks when you subscribe but that's still one quilt block a week until the next parcel arrives and it means I'll hopefully have time to do other things as well!

Erica

=)

Winter Has Finally Come!!

The snow has finally decided to descend on Yorkshire! It managed about four inches in a couple of hours, (which probably doesn't sound a lot to some people but this is England, we don't have weather!) and luckily I'd put my nice warm boots on before I went out otherwise I would probably have frozen my feet off!

Managed to take a couple of photos this morning from the warmth of the kitchen as I was still in pyjamas and wasn't going outside to take some!



Erica

=)

Tuesday 31 January 2012

Cats!

I've wanted to post a picture of Kit and Dottie for a while but haven't managed to get Kit to stay still long enough but finally got a photo today! I've had one of Dottie for ages but it didn't seem fair to post a photo of one but not the other!

Kit

Dottie

They're so unbelievably cute! Dottie has the fluffiest tail I've ever seen on a cat and Kit loves having a stroke! Kit also cocks her head to one side when you talk to her which I've never seen a cat do before, I've only ever seen my little pup Buzz do it!

One photo I was meant to post a while ago but couldn't find was the amount of cat food that Jo and Krissie left before they went on holiday:


There's also 5 bags of cat littler under the table! Don't think I'm going to run out of anything anytime soon!

Erica

=)

Tuesday 24 January 2012

New Stamp Launch at LOTV!!!

Helloooo!!!

Again, ages since my last post, sorry! Still no excuse!

Our new Grunge Corners and Love Sentiments are now available to buy on the website or over the phone and are proving really popular!! Click on the link below to go to the shop:

Tuesday 17 January 2012

Success!! (Sort of!)

Day three of cat/house sitting and we've made progress!!

I've managed to get hot water out of the shower by leaving it to heat up for ages, I've sort of sorted the heating problem by having the electric fire on most of the time in the sitting room and I've managed to figure out the heater in the bedroom so it's marginally warmer in there!

Dotti is also not a scared of me as before, I played with her yesterday and today and she let me give her a brush! Kit's still hiding under the spare bed but luckily she doesn't do it all the time as she runs back upstairs when I get back from work.

That's it for now!

Erica

=)

Sunday 15 January 2012

No Posts, Cat Sitting and Sewing Machine Panic!

No posts for over a week! Very, very bad Erica!! =/

No excuse, just couldn't really be bothered to turn the computer on as I had nothing interesting to report!

Now however, I do! Two of my friends, Jo and Krissie, have gone on holiday for a month to Australia, (I know, I hate them too!!) and they've asked me to look after the house and the cats (Kit and Dotti) while they're away.

So far it's going well! I've tried to have a shower but even though I flipped all the switched I was meant to, the water was still freezing cold, I don't know how to turn the heating up and I couldn't turn the oven off but it apparently turns itself off eventually after you've put everything back to 'off'! The cats are also avoiding me by sleeping upstairs under the spare bed. Not too worried though, it's only the first day and I have looked after them before but not for as long. Dotti's ventured downstairs for something to eat a while a go but we'll just have to see how long it takes for them to come near me!

I was having a little bit of a panic because I wasn't going to bring my sewing machine in case the cats stood on a pin or something but I thought that I'll just put everything inside after I've finished using it so they don't get hold of anything! It means they don't get hurt and I'll be able to do some sewing, hurrah!!

Anywho, that's it for now!

Erica

=)

Wednesday 4 January 2012

Lili of the Valley

Just a quick note!

In case you don't know, I work for the craft company Lili of the Valley. We've been closed since the 15th of December but we are now open again! Hurrah!!

You can order over the website and we are taking orders over the phone but aren't in the office constantly as we are moving promises but if you leave your name and number, we can call you back.

Erica

Sunday 1 January 2012

New Year's Day Tradition

We have a new tradition in our family for New Year's Day; going to Clifton Moor near York for shopping and then the cinema. It's only been a tradition for three years but it's a good one, the first year it was Sherlock Holmes, the second, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One and this year it was the second Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows.

Really good film! Love Robert Downey Jr. in anything and his Holmes and Jude Law's Watson are brilliant together, Stephen Fry's Mycroft Holmes is great and Jared Harris' Moriarty is really good!

Great New Year's Day out again and when we got home there was more Sherlock to watch with the first episode of the new BBC series! Hurrah! Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman are another brilliant Holmes and Watson, absolutely love them!!

Hope you all had a great day!!

Erica

=)

New Year's Eve on the Beach!

We had a good day yesterday taking our puppy, Buzz, to the seaside at Scarborough (in North Yorkshire on the East coast of England for those of you who might not know where it is!), and in true British fashion it absolutely chucked it down!! The little man was soaked through by the time we'd finished but he had a great time and was exhausted when we got home!

I took a few photos so thought I'd share a few with you.


My little man, Buzz. Jack Russell/Lakeland Terrier/Mongrel cross.





My Mum, Pam



Robyn trying to catch Mum in the ball thrower.




"I've got it..."


"...maybe not!"


Looking a little bit soggy!


Mum and Robyn



Dried off a bit and waiting for his drink of tea


"Hurry up, Mum! I'm cold!"

Erica =)