Christmas Card No. 7...

Same theme, different design for my other step-daughter, Emma.

Love the bunting on this one.  The ribbon was a find on Ebay, I love it, it's going on everything.

Happy New Year!!!

Albeit a week late! We had a very quiet one, just me and Dave at home, me desperately trying to stay awake until midnight, just managed it. I was at work on New Year's Day, but was sent home after an hour and forty-five minutes because we were so quiet. Still catching up with Christmas stuff and I thought I would share with you the presents I made for the girls, chocolate cupcake kits, they went down very well indeed. I got the idea from here, and they were great fun to make. Jars from Ikea, ribbon from E-Bay, wooden spoons from Wilkos and the rest of the stuff was in my pantry. Leia thought I had bought them from somewhere and claimed they were "even better" for being home-made! I find it a great compliment when people think my homemade gifts were bought. Emma thought that her Can Can scarf was bought, too.

So thrilled was I with these gifts that I have made my sister-in-law Jill, one for her birthday.

Christmas Card No. 4.

This one is for my eldest step-daughter, Emma. It was fun and quick to do and very effective.

Emma's Moving Day...

Yesterday was my eldest step-daughter, Emma's moving day. She has found herself and Jayden and Lilly a lovely rented house and yesterday we moved her in. It was quite a stressful and traumatic day for all concerned, except Emma, who was just so happy to be finally out of the marital home. We used to live in that house, we swapped with Emma and James two years ago, they needed a bigger house and we needed smaller one. When I saw the state of it yesterday it nearly broke my heart. I felt unloved and cold and depressing and was absolutely filthy. I definitely wasn't the happy home we left. Anyway, onwards and upwards, here's hoping that everything will settle down to some sort of normality now.

Here's the obligatory cross stitched card I made for them:-

Emma's Birthday...

Yesterday was my step-daughter, Emma's birthday. She's been having a rough time of it recently. She's in the process of splitting up with her husband and is looking for a new home for herself and her two little children. It is NOT an amicable split and it is deeply affecting the whole family. We just can't wait until all three of them are out of that house and then we feel we can relax a little. We bought her a new digital camera and I made her this fun card. I also, at her request, baked her some carrot cup cakes with cream cheese frosting. I bought the little edible carrots from E-bay, I didn't make them myself! These are gorgeous cakes and the recipe can be found here if you fancy giving them a go.

I also had a visit yesterday morning from my dear friend Sharon and her husband, Alan. Now, Alan doesn't eat cake, unless he's at my house that is. He keep threatening to leave Sharon for me as she doesn't bake! So I made him coffee and walnut cupcakes. He took some home with him, of course! Dave wasn't working yesterday so when visits and birthdays were over he took me into town shopping. We had lunch in a pub and he bought me Jilly Cooper's new paperback, Jump and ... a new bottle of Coco Chanel, my "signature" fragrance. Very extravagant! "Why did you buy me that", I asked. "Because you've been through a bad time lately and you've done really well getting yourself out of it, you deserved a treat!" Bless him!

New Baby Clothes ...

Dave's eldest, Emma, is expecting baby No. 2 in November and I've knitted her this little set.

Emma's Birthday Card ...

Here is the card I stitched for Dave's eldest daughter, Emma, for her birthday later on this month. I'm also knitting her a pair of socks, but she didn't even buy Dave a Father's Day present so I'm not very happy about all the trouble I've gone to for her. Grrrrr!!

Emma's Birthday Card...

I love this one.