HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all my wonderful friends a Happy and Healthy New Year! Lets hope that 2011 is a good one!
Love to you all
Alyson xxx

Walking In A Winter Wonderland

Sorry I know I have been a bad blogger! Things have been very up and down since loosing my mum. Dad has spent lots of tme with us and I haven't had time to catch up one everything! Lets hope the new year will be different!
Anyhow we did get a visit to the Winter Wonderland before christmas. Made even more magical by the fact that there was a scattering of snow on the ground!

More Halloween Look if you Dare!!!!!

I know Halloween is over for this year but wanted to share some photo's from last night!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Thought I'd share a few photo's with you............

Steampunk mini album

"Steampunk Style" mini album

First of all I just wanted to thank you for all your support during this difficult time. I did read all your comments but was not upto replying. So now for some crafting.................

I have recently taken part in a swap over on the beach to craete a steampunk/victorian album.

Here is a sneek peek of what I came up with. More photos to follow when I have more time!

More blog candy!

This time at:
http://www.vintagescrappin.blogspot.com

Check out this Blog Candy From Stacy

http://scrapwithstacy.blogspot.com/2010/09/new-tim-holtz-blog-candy-giveaway.html

Why I haven't posted in a while..............

For those of you who visit my blog to see my crafting you may not want to read further but I am feeling very low at the moment and thought that if I got some things off my chest it may help. As some of you know my mother passed away unexpectedly a couple of weeks ago. Despite being unwell with a form of dementia caused by her diabetes (thats another story) her passing was a great shock and although I know she did not suffer and would have wanted to go this way it is still hard to come to terms with. My elderly father is staying with us as they lived some 2 1/2 hrs away and I do not want him to be alone at this time. Well the last 2 weeks have been full of funeral plans and toing and froing to my parents house. Our hurt has been added to by the fact that a neighbour who has been awkward with my parents over the last couple of years, who knew my mother had passed away and that the funeral was going to happen, went and parked his car outside my parents house and cleared off on holiday! How can people be so cruel as to deprive my mother of going to her final resting place from her own home? These neighbours have abused the elderly people in the street arguing with them on more than one occasion but the strange thing is that the woman works for "Help the Aged"(or whatever it is called now), so how does that work I ask myself? Of course everyone is too scared to stand up to them and my dad has had enough on, caring for my mother to get into any arguments with them. We shall have to bite our tongue over this now as I don't want them to start on my father again if he is ever at the house alone!
To top it all my mothers brother will be at the funeral, no doubt showing crocodile tears for my mother. This man hasn't been to visit my mother and the last time he saw her, he stood behind her chair and talked over her totally ignoring her! Sorry but he had better watch is tongue tomorrow or he might find out just what I think of him!!!!
I am not looking for your sympathy in writing this but just needed an outlet for my frustrations. Thank you for all the messages and cards that I have received and although I don't always respond to the messages I do read and take comfort from them.
Not sure when I will write again but thank you all for being there!
Hugs Alyson x

Our Trip To Cadbury World.........

On Wednesday (4th August)it was my son's 17th birthday, where do the years go????
He chose where to go for the day and plumped for Cadbury World in Birmingham. We have been a few years ago and had a good time and of course our fill of chocolate so it was s good choice!
Well yet again it was a great day, Sophie had a wonderful time and especially enjoyed seeing the drum playing Gorilla from the cadbury adverts shown here in the uk!(Also the children with the "dancing" eyebrows lol)
When we got back home my husband who is a driving instructor took my son for his first driving lesson. Of course I had to record the occassion with a photo or two much to my son's embarassment!

Flowers for the August Swap on the scrapbeach

The August swap is Orange flowers so I cut these from old book pages and stained them with Marmalade distress ink. Fun to make!

Meet the Latest Addition To Our family....

Sorry I have been MIA as things have been busy lately! What with University open day visits with Sam and the preparations for the end of term there doesn't seem enough hours in the day!
Also as you can see we have another addition to our family. Ash had been on about getting a Ferret for a while now and Kev and I were not keen having never had anything to do with them in the past. Well a man up the road had some baby ferrets for sale and Kev agreed to find out more. The result being that Ash as of yesterday evening,is now the very proud owner of a ferret named Toby! As you can see from the photo's he is thrilled to bits and I must admit that Toby is rather cute!

Fun with Flowers!

Sorry I have been missing lately, things have been really hectic with family etc. I did however get the odd time when I have been making some flowers! I have watched various instruction video's on You-Tube, from where I have gained lots of inspiration! Here are what I have made so far! I have taken part in a couple of flower swaps which were great fun but the only downside is the shipping costs to and from America. Therefore I was wondering if anyone would be interested in taking part in a Flower Swap if I were to organise it here on my blog? I will finalise details once I know what the interest is. That said, I am happy for anyone to join, international or UK!
Look forward to your comments! Hugs Alyson x

June Flower swap

For the last couple of months I have joined a flower swap hosted by Lyla New on the ScrapBeach. The ones I made for May are already in America but here are the ones that i have just made for June. I had to make 12 sets and this months colour was Yellow. Please let me know what you think. Thank you!
Photo's were taken at night so don't show true colours but you can get an idea of what they are like!

Finally Back............

and no real excuse for being a bad blogger! here's one of my latest creations that is winging its way across the oceans to Tracy my dear friend in America!

You can see a video here
of the complete album. Please bare with me as I am still learning with the videoing and it isn't brilliant but will hopefully give you an idea of the album! Please leave any comments as they are much appreciated!
Thankyou for watching!

Filled Matchbox Swap

Suzie from the docrafts forum organised a "filled matchbox swap" which I had great fun taking part in! Of course I had to alter my matchbox lol! My partner turned out to be Suzie and as she has now received the box I thought I would show it on here. Yes it is a vintage style box lol!Made using distress ink, glimmer mist, lace and a hand made flower! Filled with more handmade flowers, lace, charms, paper clips, mini postcards, and lots of other tiny goodies (see picture).Great fun to do thank you Suzie for organising!

Thank you Leslie and Tracy for this award!

Here are the rules to accepting this award:

1. Thank the person who nominated you
2. Copy the award and paste it on your blog
3. Link to the person who nominated you for the award
4. List 10 interesting things about yourself
5. Nominate 10 other Beautiful Bloggers

So here goes! 10 interesting things about myself:
1. I have 3 wonderful young adults ages 12yrs, 14yrs and 16yrs so I guess I shouldn't call them children any more!
2. I will have been married to my wonderful husband for 19 years this May!
3. I love making mini albums and taking part in swaps.
4. I have made some wonderful friends through the scrapbooking world!
5. My favorite time of year is Spring as I love all the new beginnings: baby lambs in the fields, plants beginning to grow (sorry if this sounds corny!)
6. My favorite flower is the Tulip (another reason I love the spring time!)
7. I always have an untidy craft space lol!
8. I love anything in a vintage style!
9. My Favorite products: Tim Holtz, Prima, Websters Pages, Graphic 45 and of course Glimmer Mist!
10. I used to be quite shy but have got more confidence as I have got older!

So I now Nominate the following for this award:
Sarah miniaddict.blogspot.com
Sue Sue-bubbles.blogspot.com
Gina southlea.blogspot.com
Suzie Suzieboocrafts.blogspot.com
Diane dianesrambles-diane.blogspot.com
Felicia scrapzville.blogspot.com
Louise myhuckleberryfinn.blogspot.com
Val bastlemania-craftattack.blogspot.com

Our Holiday.....

Around Whitby are a lot of places that are used as TV and Film Locations. We visited a Village called Goathland which was used in the filming of Heartbeat, along with the surrounding Moors. A couple of places were still set up as for filming!

Goathland railway station was also used in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone as "Hogsmeade Station". The car at the top of this post was also used in one of the Harry potter films!