Thank you card

As promised, here is one of the thank you card's that I made last Friday. I actually made two of these, so for those of you that read yesterday's post - this makes 5.

I made these for our neighbours, to thank them for all the kindness and support they gave to us during the chimney fire and in the days since. I wanted them to know just how much we appreciated their help and that it hadn't gone unnoticed, nor had it been taken for granted.

So there we are - five cards in one day - challenge complete!

Slow return to normal . . . . . . .

I had to make two birthday cards for family birthdays this month. Having struggled to create a Valentine's card for DH, I was hoping that I wouldn't struggle so much to make the birthday cards. Now in an ideal world they would already have been made and posted by now but, as you can see from last week's posting - it isn't an ideal world!

I like to be organized and work best when I have a deadline - so on Friday morning I decided that by the end of the day I had to have made 5 cards - 3 birthday and 2 thank you cards. I had an appointment with the assessor (for the chimney fire) so I planned that I would have at least one card finished before he arrived.

Despite constant interruptions (DH working from home, DS finishing school early and the assessor being late) I managed, somehow to meet my self imposed challenge (could this be a new way of working??)

The birthday cards:

Tomorrow I will show you the thank you cards.


Until the next time.

Valentine's

Hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day yesterday.

This year I was a bit stumped for an idea for a Valentine's Day card for DH. I had given it a lot of thought but due to events of late, it appeared that my mojo had just up and gone. Last week seemed to fly past and by Thursday afternoon I was still without a card for him. I decided in my infinite wisom to back up all the photo's that are stored on the 'puter to disc and to put the disc in the fireproof safe (probably because on what happened last Monday!). Whilst doing this, inspiration struck. I had loads of pics of DH, so I decided to use these as a basis for a card. I spent ages cropping, resizing and making the photo's black and white before printing them on photo paper, followed by the lengthy task of cutting them out and sticking them in place. I also hid one of me amongst the others.



He was really pleased with his card - just as well, as I won't be making one of these again any time soon!!

Until the next time - happy crafting!

Scary times & flames

I can think of nothing nicer, on a cold winters evening, than to cuddle up in front of a roaring fire. Which is just what we were doing yesterday evening.

Let me set the scene, I had lit the fire, DH had made the coffee, DS had just arrived home and Eastenders was on the TV. We're all lovely and cosy when I heard a strange noise. I asked DH & DS if they had heard it, which they hadn't, reached for the remote, hit the mute button and there it was again - an ominous roaring. I don't know what made me look at the fire place but boy am I glad that I did.

The ominous roaring sound was in fact coming from the chimney - the chimney was on fire!! Grabbing the wood tongs I damped the fire in the grate, throwing a bucket to DH to get some earth from the garden for me to throw on the wood. Having smothered the fire in the grate, I closed the doors to the fireplace and hoped that by some miracle the chimney fire would cease. Despite our best efforts the chimney continued to burn. Our neighbour came round to help, other neighbours started gathering at the front of the house. We called the fire brigade, I grabbed the cat & a coat and pushed DS out the door in front of me. DH followed having made sure the doors were closed.

The fire brigade arrived within minutes but those minutes seemed endless. A lifetime seemed to pass - more and more people gathering to watch events unfold and to offer assistance; more and more sparks spewing from the chimney - time simply went into slow motion. With relief I heard the fire engine approaching, blues and two's all the way. With ruthless efficiency the firemen took over, assessing the situation, closing the road outside our house. Another unit arrived with a ladder, pulling up outside a neighbour's house - they must have wondered what on earth was going on! All I could do was join the onlookers and hope and pray that the fire could be contained, taking comfort from the fact that we had all got out safely. Winnie was buttoned in my coat, DH was talking to the firemen and DS was by my side - we were safe.

I was amazed and grateful for the support and help offered to us last night from the people in the surrounding houses, some of whom we have never even spoken to before. Both sets of neighbours were wonderful and I was grateful to be taken inside and given coffee and support on such a bitter night.

On an up note - we have been incredibly lucky as there is no water or smoke damage (although my mind is saying that I can still smell the smoke!!), just, though of course it is enough, damage to the chimney itself. But this is a material thing and can be repaired.

I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank everybody who helped us last night and a big thank you to our immediate neighbours either side for their support and help and of course an even bigger thank you to the firemen.

My thanks also, to Hélène for my flowers and to the little boy next door for our picture to cheer us up - it has pride of place on my fridge.

February already

I can’t believe that today is the 1st of February! What happened to January? Typically, January feels like a long month, what with that after Christmas feeling, the awful weather and pay day feeling a million days away. But this year January has simply disappeared. Maybe I simply filed it away with all the year end paperwork – who knows?

The middle of January saw me celebrating my birthday. I had a great day and was spoilt rotten. DH had the day off and DS had a short day at school so we spent the afternoon playing Guitar Hero – what a giggle! I can’t remember the last time I laughed so much and Guitar Hero certainly brought out the “rocker” within – could this lead to a career change – I think not!!

The weather continues to be appalling, snow, snow and more snow! We have had snow for the best part of 2 months now and the novelty has certainly worn off . . . . . roll on the summer.

Having mislaid January it is time for me to get back to the design table and see what I can come up with for this year.

Check back soon and see what we’ve come up with.