Christmas extra

I didn't think I would be posting again this side of Christmas but I just had to share with you the scrumptious, beautiful Christmas cake given to me (and baked) by my oldest and closest friend Anne.

Anne has been a tower of strength to me over the past months accompanying me to Melbourne for my PET scan, plying me with lovely home made soups and fruit loaves while recuperating from my operation, sitting with me in hospital while I have my chemotherapy, etc. etc. No matter what I do I'll never be able to repay her (and dear Pete, her husband) for all the caring and kindness.

What a wonderful world it would be if everyone was like Anne.

Once again my wishes to you all for a wonderful Christmas and may you all have an "Anne" in your lives.

Wishing you all a truly Merry, merry Christmas.

As this will probably be my last post until after Christmas, I want to take the opportunity of wishing everyone my very best wishes for the most wonderful Christmas ever and may all your wishes for 2009 come true.

I have slowly been posting out my Christmas cards but due to my health haven't been quite as "with it" as last year and if I have missed anyone out or your card doesn't arrive in time, please forgive me!

Anyway here are two of the cards that I have sent out this year, supplemented by a few that I already had in my stash.

The cards on the left were cased from Splitcoaststampers and have been embossed with gold and silver.

The card on the right has been adapted from a card we did at a workshop at Karens in October (thanks for the idea Karen).

I will be spending Christmas day with my eldest daughter, son-in-law and two grandsons. It is going to be a quiet celebration this year as my younger daughter and her family can't make it up from down-country for Christmas Day but hopefully, we will be seeing them Boxing Day at my sisters. That is, if I am not held up too long at the hospital as I have my next chemotherapy session on Boxing Day of all days! Hopefully it will all go okay and with luck we should make it down to my sisters before all the food is gone!

I am so looking forward to 2009 - with luck, all my chemotherapy, tests, and my ileostomy reversal operation will be over by the end of February and I can start to feel 'normal' again and put the past 14 months behind me.

All the best to everyone.

Xmas Roses

Look what I received yesterday from a very clever stamping friend. Aren't they gorgeous and the rosebuds contain a Hershey's chocolate!! Actually it is so beautiful that I won't want to destroy it to eat the chocolates - and that's saying something for me!

Janine has promised to show me how to make these so once I know I will pass it on to you all.

Thanks again Janine for such a lovely present.

SBS Wednesday Challenge #9

This was such a good challenge. You have to use up some of your scraps. I have used some Christmas scraps to make this card:

Believe it or not - for once I was happy with the way such a quickly assembled card turned out.

Perhaps that is the secret - don't try too hard!!

SBS Wednesday Challenge #8

Janet set us the challenge this week of making a card with an animal as the main focus.

Isn't he just the cutest little mouse!

Materials used:

Stamps: Stampin' Up Baroque Motifs and Warm Words, Penny Black "Smell Lovely"
Cardstock: Stampin' Up - Watercolor paper, Very Vanilla, Handsome Hunter, Spring Fling
Ink: Basic Brown
Other: Stampin' Up Watercolor crayons, Blender pen, Dark Green satin ribbon, Corner punch

Happy Anniversary Anne & Pete

Went out to dinner last Sunday night with our good friends Anne & Pete for their 51st wedding anniversary. Nev and I are only youngsters as we have only just celebrated our 45th!

Naturally I had to make them a card (rather a last minute effort I must confess).

This was a real easy card to make. I used the Scribble jumbo wheel and then colored in the flowers using watercolor crayons. Finished it off with the wide Chocolate Chip ribbon.

On the inside I used the jumbo wheel again up one side of the insert.

As I said - real easy and quick to make.

Before we went out to dinner I went to my friend Karen's (check out her blog: The INKredible Journey) who held an open home/mini catalogue/thank you gift session where I made this gorgeous box.

It is filled with chocolates (yummy) and I only held on to it a very short time as I gave it to Anne and Pete for their Christmas Day table. Karen gave a handout sheet so I can easily make another one (or two, or three ......) My biggest problem is that I can't stop myself from sampling the chocolates as I work - mmmm I can feel myself getting fatter and rounder by the minute just thinking about it!

Hope you are all having as much fun as I did.