It seemed a good idea at the time...

I had bought lollipops to hand out to the kids for Halloween and I thought I could make them into little ghosts... another of those leaky elbow moments I am afraid to admit... but I have the lollipops, the material and the ribbon...whether I have the time is debateable.  13 down 185 to go!!

Oh and I made up the cover to a mini book that I am going to teach to the ladies in the compound and used one of my lovely brooch finds from yesterday in the flower and on the title!!  Not bad.... for 8p!!  LOL

Shopping Bargains!!

OhI just love to get weird and wonderful things at bargain prices.  The other day I was looking for some buttons to finish off the jewelry organisor that I am making... I know, its been a while but it only needs a few buttons sewn on and it would be done!!  Well, I spied these buttons... big gorgeous buttons!!  I had to pick up a few as I think they would look great on a book cover or in the centre of a flower.  Now the buttons were about 30 pence each so I didn't go mad....

Aren't they lovely?? 

Then I went into Jubail on the ladies bus this morning and into my favourite shop... Big World!!  It has everything in it... ribbons, jewelry, tacky jewelry... and I found these brooches!!

I think they will be perfect in the centre of a big flower... and the brooches were all 8 pence each!!  LOL

Now I don't feel so bad that I can't get my mitts on all the lovely Prima flower centres.... and I bet they are more than 8p a piece!!

LOL... Julia raises a good point... because a lot of the ladies would never have ventured into a shop like Big World (it is all complete tat unless you are a scrapbooker) but now the place gets mobbed when we go into Jubail as they are looking at it all with different eyes!!  We have ladies now taking apart the gaudy gold wreaths and re-doing them in ribbon and berries for our doors at Christmas... ladies wripping the awful bouquets of flowers apart and making nice centerpieces for the dinner table... and nobody thinks I am completely mad anymore.... well, maybe just a few!! ;)

Blog Giveaway Winner!!

So I managed to figure out the Random Number Generator and it picked Number 61

Congratulations to Terris Chocolat

Terris, please email Nan at Nan@binditall.com with your shipping address and make the title Blog Hop Winner so she doesn't miss it and she will send you out the Coverall and Page Protectors.  I hope you have fun using them!!

Thank you to everyone who joined in the fun and left so many lovely comments on all the blogs, I will spend some time in the next few days and pay some visits back.

Panda-monium...

Pandora was doing really well after going to the vets and being spayed.  I new from experience with Mummy Cat that it would take about 10 days for the stitches to melt away and her fur to start growing back. Pandy quite enjoyed having little Tortie come in the house and visit and play with her and once they were both exhausted from chasing each other all over and under the furniture they settled into a little bundle of fur on the sofa and slept it all off!

Little Tortie thought she was in heaven... she had found exactly what she was looking for... a companion, food and a home with cuddles and smooths.  I am still amazed at the dramatic change in her from little feral hissy fit kitty to sleek little beauty with a loving personality all in 10 days. She has now been adopted by a family in the compound and found all that and more on a permanent basis... and is now called Layla.

From this to this...

Both Chris and I fell for this little bundle and we will miss her, she reminded us of Gremlin.
Anyways… Pandora, being Pandora, got a bug of some sort and didn’t feel very well and then decided it would be a good idea to remove her stitches early!! So another trip back to the vet in Al Khobar means she now has to have antibiotics for 6 days and must keep the wound covered… hmmm, pills and Pandora are not a good combination and I normally end up with scratches and bites so I ask the vet to give her the first tablet… after putting Band Aids on all the scratches and antiseptic on the bites he gave me the pills and wished me luck! Charming!! ;) He also put her in one of these stocking things to keep the wound covered… well, she had eaten her way out of that before I got her home from the vets so I had to come up with some fool proof covering….

It's one of those thick ugly leg bandages that old ladies wear... I snipped a section off and made holes for her arms and legs and having unsuccessfully tried to get it on her as a tube... gave up whilst I still had some skin left and snipped it up the back and then taped her into it!!

Shhhhhhhh, don't laugh, she will hear and she gets seriously miffed!!

Zutter's Blog Hop Giveaway

The 2008 - 2009 Zutter's Design Team decided that we all enjoyed our time together so much that we wanted a permanent reminder of the friendship and fun.  We decided to do a double layout swap and using the new Zuttter's Cover-Alls and Page Protectors we would each have a mini album as a keepsake.  Poor Nan did all the hard work of co-ordinating and sending out supplies and the pages to each of us in our particular bit of the world!! 

As a celebration Zutter's has agreed that each DT member can do a giveaway on her blog of an 8 x 8 New Cover All for the Page Protectors and a set of the Page Protectors!!  What do you need to do?  Leave a comment on this post and hop along over to the other DT's blogs and see their pages and increase your chances of winning by leaving a comment on their blog too!!  Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!! ;)

The new page protectors come in two formats, closed holes for normal binding into a mini book and open holes that means that you can remove them and put them elsewhere if you change you mind!!  Love that idea... have made this mistake loads of times and ended up with a page out of sequence... these little guys sort that one out without any prblems at all!

Here is my double page layout for the swap.

Here is my Zutter Zister Cover-All.

Lots of peeps have asked what the papers are ... I thought they were pretty obvious so didn't mention it but.... yep, its the Basic Grey Boxer Collection!!

So... leave me a comment and on the 26th October I will figure out how that random number generator thingy works and get it to pick a number to win the 8 x 8 Cover All and pack of Page Protectors!!
Here are the other blogs for you to hop over to and have a look at what they did with theirs and if you leave a comment... your name will go into their draw too!
Nan
Emeline
Tish
Jeja
Jennifer
Julie
Lea
Vicki

So, celebrate with us... because we aren't going anywhere... Zutter's decided that we would all stay together in a new team known as the Original Zutter Zisters!!

Got a new visitor...

A few days ago I was outside on the porch and this little kitty tootled round the corner of the house and headed for Pandora's food bowl... I have no idea where she came from or where her siblings and mother are but she appears to have adopted the house.
She's so tiny, only about 5 weeks old but appears to be able to hold her own perhaps because with her colouring she manages to disappear in the borders of the garden. Mummy Cat is not impressed... she knows its not one of hers and really doesn't see being a surrogate to this little thing... Tortie, as she is now known, has had a few good swipes of Mum so now keeps her distance. Pandora, well, Pandora is being Pandora and thinks this is her newest toy and plays with her all the time... sometimes a little too roughly which brings on a bout of hissing and spitting from the little furry bundle. Here are Pandy and Tortie in my kitchen windowsill... she is becoming more friendly and will now actually let me smooth her without going into a hissy fit.
Pandora went off to the vets today to be spayed so is now feeling a bit rough and trying to come round from the anaesthetic... shame... she looks like a drunk weaving about and falling down. It will be interesting over the next few days as she has to stay indoors for 5 days at least to give the wound a chance to heal...

Zutter BIA Design Team Announced!

So its been pretty busy on the Ning forum with the latest design team being announced this morning - Congratulations to all the new teamies! I am looking forward to seeing all the fresh ideas and wonderful creations. I have loved being on the DT and made some great friends whilst being in awe of their wonderful projects month after month. Luckily, we are not being disbanded and told to heave ho... Zutter's have created a spot for us as OZZ's.... that's Original Zutter Zisters... not OLD Zutter Zisters and we have our own cool logo!!


Thank you so much for all your nice words in my previous post... I am not ill, honest!! Just a check-up which is a lovely excuse to wander around in the splendour of such a place and sit and have a doughnut (or two) with a cappaccino!! ;)

I had to go to hospital today...

So, I had been reliably informed that the place to go was the SAAD Hospital in Al Khobar and made my appointment accordingly. So this was the front of the place, it is beautiful, has the most amazing inscriptions in Arabic on it and appears to have cornered the market in marble.

Oh and you know how our hospitals at home have a little room for a chapel hidden away somewhere down some long corridor? Well, none of that at this place, this the mosque for the hospital...

So Chris and I pop in the front door and head for the reception desks.... no, this is not a 5 star hotel... this is the reception area... where they take your details (and check your medical insurance ;) ) before sending you off to your appointment.

and yes, that is a chandelier hanging over the reception desks... and there was more than one of them!!

So having a half and hour to spare for the appointment we thought we would have a cup of coffee in the cafeteria...

Yep, there's those chandeliers again (they must have got a job lot from somewhere)!!

and this was the ceiling of the cafeteria... it seems almost insulting to call it a cafeteria... I have eaten in some nice restaurants over the years and most of them wouldn't compare well with this cafe!!

So I made Chris stand in front of the side table and mirror that was next to our cafe table... I think most folk thought I was a tad touched taking photos in a cafe.... but then they don't know I am a scrapper... and we photograph everything!!

and this is where Chris had to sit and wait... because men aren't allowed past this point where only ladies can enter...

Honestly... this will be the last one for a while...

Hah! Lulled you into a false sense of security that you wouldn't see another of these for a while, didn't I?? LOL Honestly, they were definitely on the back burner then I got a phone call inviting me to a birthday coffee morning... this morning!! So last night at some ungodly hour I was glueing and sticking... life would be a lot easier if I just learned how to make a proper birthday card!!

With pre-requisite fairy inside...

In its little bag.... and with an hour to spare before the coffee meeting which should give me time to shower and put my 'good' face on... (used to be it didn't take long but as the years go by it seems to take longer and longer)!!

Oh and how come if I sit a plastic box on the kitchen floor this is what happens? Amazing isn't it... when I want to put her in a plastic cat basket for the trip to a vet she turns into this whirling dervish of claws and teeth!! I should make a sticker that says 'Pandora's Box'....

Oh and this evening we are going out to dinner at our neighbours house and the other dinner guests are unknown to me but he is an Indian. Yep, a real Indian!! The wigwam sort... not sure if he is Canadian Indian or American Indian but his name is Chief.... and his wife is a Southern belle called Tammy.... so for an entire evening I am going to have to resist saying 'HOW' and breaking into song... D....I...V...O...R...C...E....

and Chris says I wonder why we don't get invited out much.... ;)

I wonder if I would be allowed to take my camera....