Twas the night before the night before....

and my house is manic and a mouse wouldn't last a second with the two cats!!  I seem to spend a lot of time putting ornaments back on the tree... I find them in the oddest places... in Pandora's new chair for one!!

I had it made by the compound joiner who made the cat houses for the porch... isn't it cute?  Oh and for those who are wondering... yes, it is in the main bathroom and she hasn't been banished or anything... just that when there were five little kittens it was the safest place to put them if I had to keep them inside and Pandy obviously remembers this because come 8.30 pm in the evening she takes herself off to the bathroom for her last food and quiet nights sleep! At least now she can do it in style!! ;)

One of the most under-used portions of my stash is my clear stamps and I think it is because they were always in a big tupperware tub in the bottom of the cupboard and therefore not that easy to get to or sort through.  So I have made myself a couple of stamp albums!!

I found some sturdy plastic pockets in the bookstore and have now sorted all my clear stamps into pockets and bound them into two albums which hopefully means that all I have to do is get a book out and flip through it to find the stamp I want to use.

OK, so that's what I have been up to, so I guess I had better now get on with wrapping some pressies and giving the house a good clean through or Santa will be popping his head round the door and leaving in horror!!

Just a quick catch up...

My Mum mentioned she had been on my blog and it was still talking about Thanksgiving... so I thought I had better take a break from scrapping and shopping and doing 'stuff' and announce that I am still here... just a bit snowed under - if a person in the desert can be snowed under!!

So this is my Journal Your Christmas book for this year... I have completed half a dozen pages so I am lagging behind the prompts... will promise to buckle down and complete some more in the next couple of days!!

This is a canvas I have done for my friend Ping for Christmas (think I am pretty safe putting it on here as her internet speeds are as awesomely slow as my own so blog hopping is not part of her agenda)!!

Here are some close-ups of the bits... I may not have finished tweaking it yet... depends on my available time before Christmas!!

This is another Christmas pressie, for my friend Trudie, its one of the picture frame versions so stand up as a display album.

Here's a close up of the flowers and pearls and bits!! ;)

Oh and look what I had the compound joiner knock up for me!!  Two little cat houses for TomTom and Pandora... of course, neither of them is willing to step in and look around.... what did I expect? LOL

Her's TomTom looking so cute and obviously preferring the old cardboard box!

This is Pandora who prefers the back of my sofa for any napping....

Thanksgiving

So here are the place names for Thanksgiving Dinner this evening... and I think they turned out ok-ish!! I saw the idea in an email from Scrapbook Trends by Kim Hughes but that old leaky elbow syndrome kicked in so if you have seen hers... you may wonder why mine aren't quite as pretty!! ;)  Probably just as well that my part is crafty rather than cooking... I have just delivered them to my neighbour and the smells of cooking coming from her house.... oh my, tonight is going to be some meal!! Pecan pie, pumkin pie, turkey and all the bits...

Do you see what I did with this one?  Did ya?  Doesn't it look like an Indian headress with feathers to you? LOL  Let's hope that Chief appreciates my sense of humour....

WOYWW

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday... created by Julia Dunnit (whos name always sounds like the answer to a question)... where people actually photograph their desks on a Wednesday and show what a state they are in...erm... or what they happen to be creating at that moment in time... but mostly involves a lot of messy desks that make me break out in hives!!  I have never joined in because my desk is usually pretty tidy as I am one of these folk that needs to tidy everything away between projects.  The rest of the room can look a mess (and usually does) but the desk needs to clean and tidy before I can start something new...but today it is a mess as I am trying to do three things at once... a book for a friend, another book for another friend and make some name places for Thanksgiving dinner... 12 of them...and Thanksgiving is tomorrow!!

Of course... if you see other peoples' messy desks... this one is pretty tame in comparison!!

Exploding Memory Boxes

The ladies in the compound decided they wanted to have a go at these... so its on the agenda for tomorrow.  Now, sitting at home in Scotland on a shelf in the scraproom are numerous versions of these that would have made life easy for me to take along as examples.... but its a long way to go for a memory box or two so I had to sit and make up a couple so they could get an idea what to do with them.

I kept the top of this quite simple and just added some bling and Glossy Accents with a little splash of Stickles to fancy it up.

Trimmed the edge with some daisy edging and blinged the centres... I was kind of hoping they might look like snowflakes... but they actually look like daisies with bling... some you win and some you don't! ;)

Here it is opened up with a few embellies and some heat embossing.

This is the second example... in my favourite colours and papers and I added tiny rosebuds, lace, vlevet ribbon and bling and little wired pearl beads.

 

Here is the whole box with the lace around the rim of the lid.

and this is it opened up with a large rose and pearls string with velevet ribbons.

CC Mini Book Class

This is the book I made up for the UKS Wizard of Oz cyber crop.  Its based on a photo frame in chipboard.

This means it will stand up as a display album.

I also made this version...

Whilst I was sitting and playing about I thought I would get rid of the nasty door numbers on my front door so I made this to go up instead!

and we have a new visitor who has made himself at home in the porch.

 He's named Tom-Tom because he must have some inbuilt GPS that made him turn up at my house!!  He's the sweetest, gentlest little guy and Chris has a soft spot for him... perhaps because he doesn't bite and scratch like Pandora!! ;)

When he comes in the house her nose gets seriously out of joint....

Ooops, been MIA!!

Sorry, definitely been busy for the last couple of weeks and my poor blog has paid the price.... also haven't been able to show you a couple of the things I have been working on... not till after the weekend anyways!!

These are a few of the ladies that have been doing my mini book workshop this week.

They all appear to have enjoyed themselves!!

Being very industrious... and a few have now found out just how much effort goes into a mini book! ;)

I have had company whilst I have been scrapping... and explaining to Pandora that the offcut paper box was not intended for her..... well... let's say it was a lost cause!!

Chris and I went to the Murjan Bazaar day and he bought me a coffee pot!!  Not just a little coffee pot either... this one is BIG!!  Its also a lamp.. wish I could figure out how to take pictures of it when it is alight as it look fab...but my camera doesn't appear to like doing this...

This is the best attempt.... the brasswork is all filigree and the light shines through the holes and makes the most gorgeous patterns on the walls and floor... it will look lovely in my dining room at home when I have decorated it Arabian style....  LOL

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!!