Happy Valentine's Day!!

Yep I know, you all thought I'd gone on vacation and fallen off the edge of the world and vanished into the ether of the interwebs... well, let me tell you, all those people who think that expat wives just sit about bored all day are absolutely wrong!  My diary is full to overflowing with things I have to do, what with Arabic classes, scrap lessons, weird dice games that sound like a WW2 places to hide (think it was Bunko), cooking demonstrations, more scrap lessons and preparing for a class... I'm finding it increasingly diffficult to keep up with the normal daily events of cleaning and cooking and occassionally ironing (which reminds me, Chris did mention last night that he might need a clean shirt in the next day or two as the hangers in his wardrobe were getting very empty looking)!! 

Oh and its Valentine's Day!!  I was spoiled, very spoiled as Chris bought me the most beautiful bag for my gift... it is so me!!  Pssst, I think I may have got it by default because we were at home in Scotland on vacation and in this store buying some Yankee candle stuff to bring back tot Saudi and I turned and saw this shelf of handbags.... oh my, it was love at first sight!!  If I am honest, I think I may have done a pretty good interpretation of a two year old at the sweet counter in Tesco's... I wasn't leaving unless the bag went with me!!  It's a scrappers bag if the scrapper happens to be a cat lover... it appealed on all levels, beautifully designed, lovely to look at and fun too.  If I say the name Ruth Pinnock you might understand... she of Radley bags design fame?  She has her own line now called Ciccia and they are the most divine bags ever!

This is my bag... it's called 'Damn Cat'.... isn't it lovely?

Well, I was sitting at my desk and had a play and came up with this!!  (Hopefully Ruth won't be too upset with me, it is definitely a scraplift but only in the most complimentary way)!!  I am going to make a mini book with photos of my cats to fit inside it.

Here I am teaching the Valentine's matchbook class... and yes, after 6 hours that t-shirt says it all!!

Here are all my ladies industriously beavering away.

This is the matchbook we made for our hard working husbands!! ;)

The matchbook has pockets which hold tags which in turn hold little credit cards with promise vouchers on the back!

and now I must be off to shower and do my hair as we have a ladies Valentine's lunch.  we have to bring a mystery gift which is randomly picked, then can be stolen twice before it finally settles with it's new owner... sounds like fun anyways!!  we were told to just wrap it in newspaper to make it easy to rip open... ummmm, nah, i am a scrapper, we don't newspaper!!  I used Basic Grey wrapping paper and made some vintage heart tags threaded onto the ribbon.

So, if I owe you an email (and I know I owe a few), you will now understand why its taking so long to get an answer!!  Hopefully things will calm down in a week or so, I have the prep done for the next scrap class and once the ironing mountain has vanished I will be back on form!!

Journal Your Christmas Album

Well, just in the nick of time... got my Journal ready for the first prompt on Monday and I am hoping that this year I am a little more prepared and ready for the off!! ;)

I have gone for a 12 x 9 album split through the middle to reduce the thickness.And I have engineered the closures so that I can move the brads into different slots as it grows!! Who said I never learn from previous experience???

The actual pages are large pockets with a tag inside... so each pocket covers 4 days of prompts which should keep the whole thing under control and it will be easy to add extra tags for photos etc if I need the space.