Tis me!!!!

Hi all!

Yep tis me!! Although the old bloggity blog has been ticking over nicely with DT posts that I schedule to do their magic by themselves I have recently realised it's July since I was here in person ... eek!! So I thought I would drop by and say 'yoo hoo' and do a quick catch up on life in general, I'll try not to make it too long even though it's been nearly 4 months!!

I don't know about you but time seems to be going crazy fast at the moment, I can't believe it's nearly Christmas again and my battle cry at the moment is definitely more hours in a day please!

So as you may or may not know a lot of my time recently has been taken up with Create and Craft TV. Never in a month of Sundays did I ever think I would be guesting on TV shows, let alone doing live hours but do you want to know a secret? I'm really enjoying it! It helps that I love the products I take on; Purple Cows tools and Serif digital scrapbook artist 2 and it also helps that everyone at the studios is so lovely and so much fun to work with!

Talking of Serif digital scrapbooking, that's another never in a month of Sundays moments for me! never did I think I would love digi scrapping but I am, here's a small selection of my latest favourite pages


The software makes it so easy and creating my own papers and my own embellishments has never been more fun!

This month me and him celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary! We've been together 19years now and to be honest it seems like 5 minutes, I am a lucky girl to have met my soul mate, here's a montage of then and now


Blimey we look so young in some of those pics!! On the same day as our anniversary Sophie was born 4 years ago so we had a trip to Devon to see the grandchildren.


I went armed with a birthday tea, complete with egg sandwiches, sausage rolls and cheese and pineapple on sticks LOL Sophie decided she liked cheese puffs and chocolate cake together the best and Dylan managed to polish off most of the sausage rolls!

Way back at the end of July, when I last did a 'live' post I mentioned we were off on a cruise. Hubby was working on it so it was a cheap birthday treat for me and we had a fab time. It was a Baltic cruise, and the main reason I wanted to go, as we had 2 days in St Petersburgh Russia and it was AMAZING! We also met some great people, ate too much and endulged in the old vino LOL here is a very small collection of photos (you can only imagine how much I could bore you with more!)


Back in September I was honoured to be featured in the September issue of Craft Stamper magazine in their stamping for scrapbookers section with an image transfer technique, here's my layout


Keep your eye out for more features in 2011

I mentioned Christmas earlier and in this household that can only mean one thing ... it's panto season ... oh yes it is!!! Hubby is in Bristol again this year at the Hippodrome with the lovely Barbara Windsor and back in September we spent a couple of days in Bristol for the launch


Rehearsals start next week and it opens at the beginning of December. It's going to be a goodie!

October saw the end of my 2010 workshops at Bee Crafty :( I've had a fab year with the girls there and all that attended the workshops, I particularly liked it went Santa came to visit when we made the light up Christmas tree :)


Let's see what 2011 brings!!

2011 is filling up with bookings too. I'll be at Stitches in February, Olympia in March, Scrap-a-mia in May and sparkle dreams in October, check out the side bar for details and any additional info and I'm also working on something exciting that I hope to bring you all soon :)

And that's it really, the last 4 months kind of caught up on, life is mighty busy but I can't complain because life is good and at the end of the day I am getting to do what I really love .... create!

So all that's left for me to say is ... 'and finally' ...


The boys are doing really good, they make me laugh every day and are my best friends. Ollie recently went through it a bit following an op, he was very poorly and did put me and Stan through a week of trauma but I am happy to report he is back to normal and terrorising us as ever! (thankyou to all those that sent well wishes during all that via email, blog, facebook and daisy trail!) As you can imagine I have many, many photos of my fur babies so here are just a few collaged together so you don't lose the will LOL


I've really enjoyed this visit with you and thanks for stopping by, I've missed this 'live' blogging and will try and pop back soon to do it again!!In the meantime I have some DT posts coming up so hopefully I'll *see you* then. I hope you've all been keeping well and happy yourselves and until soon Happy Crafting
Love
M x

Do not open until December 25th

Hi all
It's my turn to share over at It's a Creative World today and I thought I would bring out an oldie but goodie, well it only gets out once a year LOL
Here it is




An interactive memory advent calender that will fit in with your Christmas decs and if you'd like to know more, like how I did the text transfer or stretched the paper to paint, pop on over to IACW and read my far more detailed post over there as well as getting Christmas inspired by some of the other creative girls on your visit .... well it would be rude not to :)

Now while I'm here I want to ask ... how are you? It has been an age since I sat and wrote a real life blog, it was way back at the end of July so I must rectify this soon, if for no other reason than to share some pics of my woofs, they are well and bonkers as normal!! Life just seems to be going so quickly doesn't it! I know the battle cry as we get older is time goes fast but oh boy! this year them upstairs certainly have ther fingers pressed on that super fast forward button don't they!

And while I find myself chatting can I just say a huge thankyou for all the lovely messages I've had in various cyber places I frequent about the Serif POW shows on Create and craft, I do really appreciate you all taking the time out to find me and leave me some love :)

Ok rambling now, I'll save up the rest for a real life post ... very soon I promise!

I hope you're all well and happy, until soon Happy Crafting!
Love
M x

PS do you remember I mentioned retreats a couple of days ago? Well I've just been officially announced for the Scrap-A-Mia retreat in May, check out the side bar for details .... I am so honoured to be with such an AMAZING line up of teachers (if not a little nervous LOL)

a JOYous day at IACW

Hi all

It's this months post over at It's a creative world for the simple things project. A project that lasts all year and explores the simple things in life with a word prompt every month.

This month the word is JOY and here's my take on it



I wanted to record one of the days of my life when I felt I experienced real JOY and happiness when I became trainer for the day with the Dolphins at Xel Ha ecological park in my beloved Mexico.

I created a push me pull me card so the picture popped out to reflect the elation I felt that day. Push me pull me's are so easy to create and when you discover the secret ingredient you'll say no way like I did .... well, maybe you will! I am always amazed at how simple the mechanisms are for interactive cards. To see how easy they are pop on over to IACW to see the post and wallow in the rest of the inspiration over there from the rest of the oh so talented creative girls.

Today I'm busy preparing for a Serif Digtal scrapbook artist 2 show for Create and craft TV on the 23rd at 8am and a Purple Cows show at 9am eek!!

Thanks for popping by, I hope you're well and happy and until soon Happy Crafting!

Love
MJM x

Focus on colour in Black and white

Clear as mud? maybe this will help ...


Hi all! This is my offering over at It's a creative world for today. A super easy but effective way to add a twist to your photos, go and check out my post to see how I did this easily and simply in a word document.





Although in the post over there I have said you don't need any fancy programme to do this effect in, I resisted the temptation to do it in my serif digital scrapbook artist 2 programme until I know you've all got it LOL and you can get it tomorrow at an absolute steal, basically getting a digi collection of 10 kits with it for free so why not join me tomorrow 17th August on create and craft and ideal world TV at 9am and 12 noon ... not sure which channel comes first as I post this, but you get the idea :) See you there!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoy the inspiration over at it's a creative world and until soon Happy Crafting!

Love
M x