having a mandi moment

Monte Carlo here we come!!

As you may already know, this week the South of France is playing host to two world famous events.  The Cannes Film Festival and the Monte Carlo Grand Prix. 

We are lucky enough to have family who live near Cannes so tomorrow we are off......hopefully to some sunshine.

At the end of April I went to Lancashire and took the Scrapbook Design and You course (SDU) and I am now a qualified SDU teacher. Our classes for this exciting new course will be starting in early June and will run for 8 classes.  Anyone interested can contact me at: crosspatchcrafts@aol.com

Well......Bobbi-Sox has just gone to the cattery, everyone is fed and watered so I will sign off now.

Catch you all soon !!

Happy Birthday Cross Patch Craft Store

Yay !!  I really can't believe that we have had the store 8 years already.  This weekend we decided to give the whole store a face lift.  Instead of cerise pink and royal blue .......we have gone all coffee and cream !!

Well....here are a few of the cards that I have been making over the last few weeks

 

Good-Bye Little Nan and Twinkle

Today my dear Grandmother, Little Nan, passed away quietly at Earlfield Lodge nursing home.  She was 88.  She had been poorly for a long time and today was a release from her pain.

This picture was taken on Christmas Day 2008....just a few weeks ago.

She leaves behind 5 children.  Barry, Stella, Suzan (my Mum), David and Cindy.  10 grandchildren...Lee, Beverley, Richard, Ian, Jacquiline, Amanda, Naomi, Anne Marie, Aaron and Darren......and 19 (and one on the way) great-grandchildren.  We will all miss her terribly.

On Saturday 17th January our dear little Lionhead rabbit, Twinkle, passed away.  She was 3 1/2.

This picture makes her look like a Guinea Pig !  she really was the sweetest little thing.  Having lost our precious Lavendar back in September, we are now down to 8 bunnies.

Oooooooooh.......I am loving this cartridge

I am having way too much fun with my Wild Card cartridge !!  although to be honest, I should so that I'm loving the doily card !!  I hadn't really played with the cartridge very much...until my Sunday craft club.  One of my friends, Jackie, made an adorable card using this cut and I thought I would join her.  Whilst Jackie had the spine of her card on the side, I made mine with it at the top.  A cute little Hello Kitty on top...and hey presto! this was the end result

 

If only it had stopped there......next came the Indie Art butterflies, followed by the Christmas Solutions teddies!!

   

   

I really should stop playing and do some work around the store....but I'm having too much fun !!

Happy New Year !

Wow !!  and what a cold one !!  After two weeks off, Mike and the children have finally gone back to work and school (hooray!!) and I have gone back to happily using my new Christmas presents.  Santa was very good to me this year....bringing me all four of the new licensed Cricut cartridges.  Sesame Street and Friends, Sesame Street Font, Hello Kitty Greetings and Hello Kitty font.

However, Mike has told me that I have to start selling off some of my (rather large) collection of cards if I am to have any more cartridges before my birthday in the summer.

So here are a few of them !!  If you are interested in purchasing any of them, please email me at crosspatchcrafts@aol.com.  I can accept payment by PayPal.

  Kitty Balloons £2.25

Little Miracle £1.99

  2-4-6-8  £2.25

Cherries £1.99

Matchbook style notebooks £1.99 each

All of the cards in my gallery are available to purchase, so please feel free to browse through and let me know, should you wish to order

2008....A YEAR IN REVIEW

WOW !!! I don't know about you...but it only seems like yesterday that we started the year and here we are facing 2009.

Although it seems to have been a short year....we have certainly not wasted our time,

JANUARY - a retail craft show in Exeter...not the greatest !! and Catherine turned 14.

FEBRUARY - trade show in Birmingham and the launch of the Winnie the Pooh and Friends Cricut cartridges.

MARCH - I had the first of two operations on my hands for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

APRIL - 14th saw the store celebrating it's 7th birthday.

MAY - second operation on my hands and a trip to Disneyland Paris with the children

JUNE -We got our cute (and naughty) kitten, Bobbi-Sox, went to see Neil Diamond in concert, and my dear friend, Cristin, arrived from New Jersey to stay with us for a week.  we had a fabuluos time and were both sad to see the week end.  I turned 35....aaargh !!! and Andrew turned 12.

JULY - Mike and I spent a few days in the South of France visiting his brother, Royston and his wife Louise.  As we flew home (on our wedding anniversary) we saw the Grand Pier on fire....shock was oon replaced with sadness as realisation dawned that we would never see the beautiful building again.

AUGUST - We are all still waiting for the sun to shine !!!  someone forgot to tell Mother Nature that it was summer !!  Mike turned 51.

SEPTEMBER - Children went back to school and we are STILL WAITING for the sun to shine !!

OCTOBER - Our long awaited trip to America.  Philadelphia, Atlantic City, Washington DC and New York....and I got a chance to go and stay with Cristin and her family and have dinner and then breakfast with our dear friends, Ted and Jaime.

NOVEMBER - The United Kingdom is definately in a recession as (it seems) is most of the Westernised world.  Banks are closing and 100 year old businesses are ending....a worrying time for us all.

DECEMBER - and now here we are in December. What will the New Year bring we wonder?

I hope that you all have a Happy and Healthy New Year !!!  Chat to you in 2009 xxx

Our American Friends

Well, here we are again. This coming Saturday marks the middle of 2008...and we are all still wondering where 2007 went!!

I am always thankful for the invention of the World Wide Web and in particular, email. I have met some amazing people via the internet on craft forums.

A few years ago I was lucky enough to meet Jaime and Ted Echt, and early last year I met Cristin.  In February 2007 Jamie and Ted came to stay with us with their children, Ben and Rachel......and a couple of weeks ago Cristin made the journey over the pond to come visit.

We have a mutual love of rabbits and of Cricut machines!!  We certainly managed to cram a lot into the few days that we had.

I picked Cristin up from Bristol Airport on Monday morning and we came back to my home for a cup of tea and to see the rabbits.  Then it was off to the store for the afternoon.  Tuesday we went to Bristol Zoo, Bristol Cathedral and Bath (I must be the only person in the South West who DOESN'T know where the World Famous Roman Baths are!!).  Wednesday it was time for us to go to Cheddar and the wonderful Wishing Well Tea Rooms.........and WOW!!!  those people certainly know how to make a cream tea.  Wednesday evening we drove to London.  Our hotel was right next to Wembley Stadium and our rooms had a great view of the stadium.

We got into the city around 10am on Thursday and the first thing we saw was the marching band making their way up to Buckingham Palace....a few minutes later another marching band arrived at the Palace.  I am sure it was the Ghurkas coming to celebrate the Queen's Official birthday.

Then it was off to the Houses of Parliament and 'Big Ben'...which of course is actually the bell inside the clock tower.  We were able to go up to the gallery in the House of Commons.

Then it was off to Westminster Bridge to view the London Eye and have our picture taken

The Tower of London and Tower Brdge were next and then....lunch!!

Friday Mike took us to Wells Cathedral and the Bishop's Palace (where they were playing croquet on the lawn!!).

Saturday and Sunday we had classes at the store......and then around came Monday again.

It's now less than 4 months until I go back across the pond and see all of my American friends...and I can't wait!!

Hello Again!!

At last !!  after months of waiting I have finally had my first Carpel Tunnel release surgery on my hands.  With a bit of luck I will be able to get the full use and feeling back in my left hand within the next couple of weeks before I go to hospital to have surgery on my right hand.

Things are still busy, busy around here.  Catherine is about to take her Year 9 SAT's, Andrew is getting excited about his first trip away from home with the scouts in June and Mike has new toys.....an iphone and a new car.

My baby bunnies are now 10 months old and bigger than their parents.  My broodiness for baby rabbits is being fed by my dear friend Cristin who breeds rabbits in New Jersey, USA.  Every time she sends me pictures I resist the temptation to breed mine or run down to the pet store and buy more, as I can get my fix from seeing her adorable brood.

Having my hand bandaged up certainly hasn't deterred me from crafting {as if !!}  With loads of new things for the Cricut coming out I HAD to make sure I could craft one-handed.

There are the new Winnie the Pooh cartridges, solutions cartridges for wedding, soccer, camping, baseball, home accents and indie art and new embossing plates for the Cuttlebug (they will also work on the Big Shot and Big Kick).

This is just a quick hello and update from me.....bye for now xxxx

Cricut shared files problems

Although my shared cut files are attached in a previous post....I have discovered that there are a few problems with "dates" when trying to download and open them.  I will be trying hard to sort this out this week......but please be patient (I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to computers!!)

Happy times....and a Happy New Year !!

Happy New Year!!.....a little late I know.  Every year I make New Year's resolutions and every year they have fallen by the wayside before January is even out.  This year is no exception.

My first resolution this year was wrecked by the second!!  My first was to update my blog on a regular basis (the second was to get to grips wth my new Cricut software) which would have been fine if I hadn't had the new Cricut Design Studio software put onto my laptop. 

OH MY GOODNESS !!!!  what a wonderful piece of software this is.  Sure it's causing sleep deprivation whilst I think of new things to do with it, but wow!!

Here are a few of the things I have made with mine in the two weeks I have had it.  With a bit of luck and a fair wind I should also be able to upload the cut.files for some of these.....if not you can always email me and I will send them to you direct.

Download catherine_card.cut   

Download happy_easter_with_bunny.cut

Download hi_there_card.cut

Download lorna_new_card.cut 

Download many_thanks_card.cut

Download howdy.cut

Download i_love_you_base.cut

Download flower_topped_card.cut

Download love_you_card.cut

Download love_you_simple.cut