LAST DAY….

Hello there is a beautiful morning once again, I have been loving seeing this nice weather this week, unfortunately didn’t manage to take advantage of it as most of my jobs were inside, oh well. 
Today is THE LAST DAY to order from the current catalogue and mini catalogue. If there’s anything left on the I have to have list please order it as soon as you can.
I am soo excited for tomorrow, I finally managed to finish all my samples for the displays at 3 am this morning and all I have left today is sort and price my retired merchandise that will be for sale tomorrow at my open house. I have cut all the layers for my make n take( well my dad did bless him) but have not yet decided on a design so I need to do that as well.   If you are planning on coming please let me know so that I can prepare.
Oh and I mustn't forget the baking that’s happening today too but that is as easy as chuck everything in the bowl pressing a button, wait for 30 seconds and pour  into the tin to bake, did I tell you lately that I love my Thermomix?
I am sharing today another project made with new catalogue yummies, this time a stamp set I received while on the Incentive Trip in Prague. I adore this set and this card was made for a recent Passionette swap that Dawn kindly agree to organize and host for us. I got some absolute beauties back that I am sure I will share on here over the coming weeks and even copy them, but for now here is the one I have made.

Star of the show one of my fave new In colours Calypso Coral, look at that pop of colour!!
The base is Basic Gray I have embossed the bottom section using the Vintage Wallpaper folder, then I stamped and inked the base.  The frame was stamped in Crumb Cake, cut out and attached to a torn layer of Pear pizzaz card.
Stamped the flowers onto Calypso Coral with Tangerine Tango and Cajun Craze ink and cut them out with the perfect snips.  

Crumple everything, arrange and add to the base.  Time for some yummy gathered lace ribbon, spritz everything and  voila !!                                                   The sentiment is from a new set too and got this on the fabulous Incentive Trip. I love being a demonstrator, have you thought about becoming one? Get in touch for a no pressure chat, there’s never a better time to join or re join than with a new catalogue coming out. My email is telemech01ataoldotcom.
Right got to dash see you again very soon. Hugs xxx

Day three of sneak peaks

Hellooooo, want to see some more sneaks? I am on a roll making new samples for my launch on Saturday and I feel like I am not getting anywhere fast.

But I am sure I will get there sleep is so overrated.  Here’s  another sample

Ok so watercolour fans will freak out over this cute set, its really fun and very versatile, its one of the hostess sets for next year.

And it features what will be EVERYONE’S favourite new colour, is called POOL PARTY and is a lovely shade of aqua, think tiffany blue so Paula Gale if you are reading this you wish has come true at last.

I paired it with Wild Wasabi and Peach Parfait . The hot air balloon was coloured using markers and the sentiment was punched out with the modern label punch. A green button brings everything together. A simple but cute card.

Right I need to go and finish off some more projects see you again tomorrow for another sweet sample. till then thank you for coming and big hugs xxx

Five…. the correct answer was FIVE

Hello there and thank you so much for all your lovely comments, not many people entered and only 2 correctly guessed the answer, Eleanor and Anna so I decided that Eleanor will take the number 1  spot and Anna number two as this was the order their comments were posted. And the number the Random Generator picked the winner as…..

Congratulations Eleanor send me your address and I will send your lovely prize off in the post. Thank you all for entering my little competition.

The stamp set , the beautiful lace, the yummy scalloped dotty ribbon ( I mean really? dotty and scalloped? ), the ornate and fabulous looking brad and a brand new colour called Lucky Limeade.
I stamped the tree in Chocolate chip ink onto Crumb Cake card stock and used a white pen to add buds to the tree branches. I don’t think i will ever tire of this set.
And here’s another peek using the same set

Calypso Coral is another new colour and my second favourite from the new ones. A beautiful shade of Coral,  unusual and a bit different which is always good, I love different things that catch the eye.  I paired here with Cajun Craze Pear pizazz and that fabulous polka dot ribbon again. I sponged a bit of Bashful blue behind the branches and punched out tiny flowers using the itty bitty punch.
Dimensions for this card are simple.
Calypso Coral 15 x 15 cm card base
One piece of Cajun Craze designer paper 14cm x 10cm
More Mustard layer cut at 10cm x 10cm
Whisper White at 9.5cm x9.5cm
Thank you for stopping by see you tomorrow with another sample. Till then big crafty hugs xxxx

NEW CATALOGUE countdown ..Sneak Peek

Hello there not long left from this Stampin’Up! year and I am so excited about the reveal of the new catalogue. I have been busy with sample making, stroking and admiring the new stuff for weeks now and I will be so relived  when I can settle into a routine with the new book, I L O V E it !!
But right now you can have a peak at Luca’s Birthday cake. He had a Pirate Party and I was roped in to help with the invites, the cake, the treasure hunt( the little ones loved this), doing all the face painting, help with the cooking you name it LOL. I loved every second of it and my favourite boy in the whole wide world deserved the best party ever, both myself and my sister dressed up as pirates and it was such a laugh. As you can imagine I didn’t have much time left to take many photos and I am gutted but my sister has some.
Here’s the cake

It was a proper rough looking pirates ship!!  I had so much fun doing it and it didn’t take me long at all chatting with my sister till the early hours of the morning LOL
Here’s the close up with that all important number showing, where did the time go?
Luca and his young guests enjoyed it and the inside was a very yummy chocolate cake made in the Thermomix(of course).
And here’s the Birthday Pirate !! I love this guy soooo much!!!

Ended up making him a card to match the theme of course and I will share that one another day, because right now I am all flat out this week getting ready for my New Catalogue launch Party this Saturday and  

YOU ARE INVITED !!!.

Come along and help me launch our fabulous New Catalogue, admire the gorgeous displays ( I am hoping they will turn out gorgeous I am still working on them) and take advantage of my BOGOF SALE. You will love this a lot, I will be selling all of my retired stuff and will be offering the same amount of credit towards purchases from the new book. For example buy £25 of retired stuff from my sale table and get £25 credit to spend as you wish on products from the new catalogue.
FREE make and takes using all new stuff of course, a very generous raffle, chance to win prizes for a fun catalogue hunt and enjoy a special treat provided by the lovely Thermie.
WHEN?                                                                                                                                          1st October 2011, 13.00pm –15.00pm
WHERE?
Carlton Village Hall
CHURCH LANE.                                                                                                               CARLTON
GOOLE
DN14 9PB
Please note this event is FREE but I need you to RSVP !! If I don’t  know you’re attending I won’t be prepared for you.
Hope to see you there. Right here’s a little sneak peak…

This set is new and adorable, a firm favourite of mine already. Now I will not share a list of supplies because I have a little game for you, if you can answer how many new products you can spot on my card above you will go into a draw then the random generator will pick one person out that will win a little prize. The draw closes tomorrow at 20.00pm and I will announce the winner on here. Good luck see you tomrrow, till then hugs xx

Christmas Club

Hellooooo, hope you had a good rest this weekend. Before I do anything I need to let you know that I have ONE MORE PLACE available in the new Virtual Club so if you want to grab it please email me NOW> You can read more about it by clicking the SPREAD THE COST button at the top of my blog.

I arrived from Luca’s Party in London last night after 10pm and the first thing I did was unpack and  switch the Thermomix on to bake a cake for today’s club, ONE minute later my cake was happy in the oven while I got dressed in my jammies and watched Downtown Abbey as I missed it last week.  I did some fresh butter this morning and made the cake frosting which meant that with very little effort my ladies enjoyed a very fresh cake at today’s club. All in all it took me 15 minutes work from start to finish, oh and when I did finished my machine cleaned and dried itself hee heee love it. Sorry no photo but it was chocolate and delicious.

Ok want to see what we did at todays Christmas Club?

Four cards like always and I loved the designs, well I would say wouldn’t I, it was me that designed them.

First one using the Broadsheet alpha which is just amazing, I never loved an alpha set as much as this one

Second one done in Night Of  Navy such a fabulous colour!!

It uses the current hostess set Punch pot Pourri and bird punch. We used the Elegant Bouquet embossing folder for this card.

The third card of the group was this one

This one you have seen on my blog before as is the make n take we had for Harrogate show. Contempo Christmas, Vintage Wallpapaer embossing folder, top note die( we used this die a LOT today)

And last one

Elegant Eggplant and Old Olive along with the season of Joy stamp set, it was good to ink this one up again I like it.

We all had so much fun again, I took my thermomix for a ride to the club and we started with fresh lemonade then I made some marmalade for the ladies to take home with the remnants of the lemons, YUMMY>

Right I am off as i have some Virtual Club orders to sort and place, hope to see you soon with some sneak peaks of new catalogue. Can you say E X C I T E D ? till then big hugs xxx

Stampin Dasher Up!!

Hee hee see what I did there? Yep you guessed it hysteria is setting in, how are you?  looking forward to the weekend? I am tremendously. I will be driving to London tomorrow to help prepare for Luca’s Birthday party on Saturday, and yes I am taking my Thermomix with me to make light work of the hand cooked yummies.  I am so excited to see him again, he was besides himself today (his actual birthday) when I sang Happy Birthday down the phone to him just like he always always sings it to me on my birthday*heart melting*. Oh and I am on strict orders I have to make sure *I* pick him up from  nursery tomorrow, what  a treat for me ,I am sure I will have some photos to share soon .

Today I ran a fabulous workshop for Jaquie and her crafty friends. I loved it and all the ladies said they did as well. Stampin’Up! products are always so well received at workshops, people simply love the great coordination our prducts offer. They all made a nice and simple card using the gorgeous Serene Snowflakes set and Contempo Christmas.

The colours used were Elegant Eggplant and Old Olive. A different combo for Christmas and everyone enjoyed their cards and couldn’t believe how fast they came together. This is what I love about SU, you can create GOOD looking cads in 10 minutes flat when time is at a premium you DO NOT need 11 layers and tons of product on a card for it to be beautiful. We also used the Square Lattice folder and he was definitely the star of the show, well it was a pretty close call actually between the folder and the dashing  Dasher.

Here is the other card I demonstrated

Brayering is a bit of a no go area for most crafters but is actually really easy to achieve when you follow a few simple steps, this technique was showcased  in a video tutorial for all my Virtual Club members. Talking about my Virtual Club we only have 2 MORE PLACES left in the next Club 10 months 10 people £10/month. If you fancy it please get in touch, you can also read more on the Spread the Cost tab at the top of my blog.

Thanks Jaquie for inviting me  along and for all the effort you put in to make the workshop such a success, also thanks to all the lovely ladies for coming.

Right I think I will end this for today I still have a long list to get through before bed time then is travel time to the Capital in the morning to see my most loved people in the whole wide world .

But I cannot leave without showing you some more yummies, here’s Monday’s dinner?

We had a yummy Hazelnut and Almond crusted salmon, the recipe here stated fennel but I couldn’t get any at the weekend so we had it with baby potatoes  and green beans instead.

It was SO easy, so very yummy and so very healthy although I did drizzle some aioli over my veges *oops*

And then I attempted to cook my all time favourite treat MACARONS !! Oh my God I cannot tell you how much I love these little treats but by gosh they are so very temperamental to actually cook, my first batch was about 80% successful, they didn’t look right but they had the nice crispy outer and soft gooey inside, I did stick with a hazelnut and chocolate flavour, I learned from making the first batch so will deffo try again. Here they are

Like I said close but not close enough, however they didn’t last long .

See you all very soon, thank you fro joining me see you soon, till then hugs xx

Christmas Card Club

Hello there hope you are having a fab day. I am under pressure a bit,  this week is manic for me but I am looking forward to the end of it as is Luca’s 4th birthday and this means one thing ITS PARTY time !!!!

I am only sharing some sneak peeks today as nearly all my crafting right now is with new stuff that I cannot show you yet.  However all will be revealed in good time.

Yesterday I spent some time bagging up my kits for Sunday’s Club, yes I need to work ahead of time as I also have a workshop this week and a big birthday cake to do.

Here s a sneak peek of all of the cards we will be making on Sunday

If you wish to join us drop me an email at telemech01ataoldotcom. Each month we make 8 Christmas cards and by the time December comes we would have built a nice collection of regular cards, leaving us with some fun time to design and create those special one that require extra detail and a bit more time , fun!!

And I feel so smug right now to have so many of my cards done ahead of time, it feels good to know I won’t be running around in December doing them( only I KNOW I will still be running around trust me).

And I am spending more time with my Thermomix, I am still amazed at how easy and fast it is to cook delicious soups, sauces, breads, cakes with this incredible machine.

My fresh salads take 6 seconds once I add everything to the bowl including my dressing.

I can mill my own icing sugar in 20 seconds flat so no longer do I have to pay nearly double for it. The fresh sorbets are to die for, again made really fast in just 1 minute. Ice creams are a doodle with this machine as well, and as I learn more and more about it is clear that if you have any allergies or food intolerances then this machine will change your life for the better, for gluten free diets you can mill your own gluten free grains to make delicious breads and biscuits  with ease and do not feel like you have to eat the saw dust like limited choice of produce available in shops.

I’ll stop now as I could go on forever LOL but will leave you with some photos of my yummies. I cooked a delicious pancetta and lentils soup for lunch with home made rolls. I love making my own bread and I bake twice a week, well the machine kneads my dough for 1 minute I leave it alone to prove in the bowl knead it in the machine for another minute shape and leave alone for 30 min then bake for 20. And I get on with my life and work in between all this, so easy and we enjoy fresh and additive free bread(saying that I don’t often eat bread myself although I love to sniff it LOL).

In the last 2 weeks we didn’t eat 2 meals the same. I can now be adventurous and cook things I would have never  attempted before and I always cooked fresh and healthy before the machine.  Saturday night used to be  takeaway night  but instead I cooked a delicious 5Spice pork with rice and vegetable meal, it was really lovely, very healthy and we saved ourselves about £15.

Ok I am sure I bored you to tears do come back soon for some pretties, Till then a big hugs to you xx

Birthday Passionette- Sew Lovely

Hello there are you enjoying your weekend? We had some fab weather here lots of sunshine but the air is a bit crisp which means the Summer is ended and autumn is taking hold.

Today Carole one my original Passionettes is celebrating her special Happy Day. Carole loves red and the card I made her has plenty of Real Red.

I used the Sew Lovely stamp set and made two posh looking frocks using our fabulous punches. I used the Heart to heart punch for the bodices and the a circle and a oval punch for the skirt part. Very easy and quite sweet.

I also used Vintage Vogue stamp set and French Foliage  to add a stamped background to my focal image, crumpled seam binding and a pearl topped button finishes off my card.

I just hope Carole likes it, I have been estranged from my mojo lately but this always happens when I receive new product to play with I find it all a bit overwhelming.

You can see a close up of the funky dresses, I made two so Carole could choose which one she likes best

Here’s the supply list: All products Stampin’Up! unless otherwise stated.
PAPER: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Real red designer paper stack from the brights collection
INK: Basic Black, Crumb Cake, Basic black
STAMPS: Vintage Vogue, French Foliage, Sew Lovely,   Perfect Punches  TOOLS: scallop trim border punch, Heart to Heart punch, Extra large Oval punch, and 13/8” circle punch
, Large Oval, Scallop Oval punch                                                                   ACCESSORIES: seam binding ribbon.

Measurements list:

Start with a Crumb Cake card blank measuring 15cm x15cm

Cut real red dsp at 13.5cm x 13.5cm

Cut basic black layer at 10.5cm x 11.5cm and scallop one edge

Cut Very vanilla at 10cm x 10cm and stamp the edges in Crumb cake then stamp the manikins, make the dresses from punches then tie the crumb cake seam binding to the layer and stick down onto the base, using a fine mist sprayer add some water to the binding and scrunch in your hand.

Thank you for popping round see you again soon.

Oh want to know what we had for tea a few nights ago?

Red Thai Curry from scratch, even made my own paste which was fresh and incredibly flavourful, I am cooking things I never attempted before.

Have a great rest of weekend xxx

Show Video and please vote

Hello there I hope you're ok, I have been busy getting ready for a team training event tonight playing with some new goodies. I have the video for you at last and also PLEASE, PLEASE , PLEASE if you could vote again for my friend I would greatly appreciate it she is not in the lead and needs the votes more than ever, you can vote more than once and if you have a mobile device you can cast an extra vote,  I know this is a bit cheeky but unfortunately they have been told to advertise it on facebook and to get friends and family voting so is turned into a popularity contest and now I soo want my friend to win this, please click the link below and vote for SALLY H thank you.

http://www.acepolls.com/polls/1228037-vote-for-your-favorite-picture

And here's the video from the show, I am sorry if you will recognize projects of your own and you don't hear your name I started with names and I now realise I shouldn't have had as I left so many of you lovely ladies that created beautiful projects without a name. Sorry for that.
Enjoy the peek and see you again soon, Hugs xxx

Hello there at last I am able to sit down for 2 minutes and share with you some pictures from the show. I have a video as well but my volume button on my laptop has stuck on mute and I cannot edit it,. We talked with so many lovely crafters this last weekend and made new friends which is lovely. Our stand grabbed a lot of attention once again and it was nice to have people come back for more than one look, this always makes us smile. here s some pictures I am hoping hubby will be able to un stick my volume button and I will be able to show the video tour as you will see the lovely items on display better.

We had tons of cards and 3 d items on display most of them made by my fab team and fellow demonstrators.

this was the other end of the stand and you can just about see the table for our make n take's, where the  big shot is.

One of the displays I love making for the show is the HALLOWEEN one and this year I had a go at making a display I saw on Kimberly's blog but saw it to late to make it for last year's show. It turned out so sweet and it got quite a bit of attention. I am also happy as I have it ready now to adorn my home now that the show is over.

Here's a few close pictures, of course it would have been better if you saw the whole display but hopefully you will get the idea. 

 

They are very much inspired by the talented fellow demo Kimberly Van Diepen and she has a fabulous video tutorial on her blog showing you how to make these lovelies HERE.

To decorate the cones I used a mixute of stamp sets, Tiny tags, Natures Walk, Aristic Etchings.

I will leave you with a few pictures of the fabulous girlies in my team that helped man the show Jo and Paula. They were fab and had a lot of fun, we all did. 

and one of all of us together all blurry lol.

Well this is all I have for you today there are loads of things gone of the retiring list so if you need anything make sure you place your order ASAP. 

 I can't leave and not tell you about my latest food inspired bit. We had pizza the other night 

But not just any pizza, this was my first ever hand made pizza made of course in the Thermomix entirely, from the dough to the fresh tomato sauce, it was incredibly delicious and so much better than any bought pizza.

Right see you all very soon but before I go I have a HUGE favour to ask, my dear friend Sally has entered a competition to win a Filofax and needs a few more votes to win, if you have 2 seconds would you please vote for her? She would be very grateful I can tell you and so will I. You can cast your vote by clicking the dot next to Sally H picture HERE.
Thank you so much,  big hugs M xxx

Harrogate Show and I still have blogging issues

Hello there I hope you're well and your weekend is going great. I am having a ball at the GNPE show in Harrogate alongside some of the fabulous girlies in my team, I am simply exhausted as I type this but I will be snoozing in exactly 10 minutes from now. LOL
I so need an early night.
I am still having issues with blogging and cannot work it out why!!! lots of grrrrr moments.
I am sharing a few cuties we made for our stand display. I had a day's creating with two ladies in my team last week and we made a few cuties. Bird houses are so easy to make using the mini milk carton and Big Shot and they are sooo lovely.

some were decoated using the lovely level 1 hostess set called Punch Pot Pourri and the matching punch while some were decorated using the ever so cute Mr. Owl punch

Don't they look cute? We used the top note die for the roof, this was inspired by a swap I received  from a talented fellow demonstrator, Joanne Gelnar. You can just about see the shimmer mist on the roof, everything glistened on that stand LOL
Jo my teamie made some sweet ornaments using the square punch and jolly holly paper

And we also made some lovely pillow box Rudolph's with very red shiny noses

The stand took us ages to finish off yesterday and at one point we thought we would never get to go home. Is funny as we got the setting up job to a fine art now but we always take AGES fiddling with arranging the samples and making everything look the way we think it should. Is a standing joke now between ourselves and our neighbours as they usually arrive after us, have to build their stand then literally put out thousands and thousands £ worth of merchandise and still manage to leave 2 hours before we do LOL.
I will be taking a video of the stand and post on here on monday after I got up at around midday. I am so tired so I will get off.
have a great Sunday and THANK YOU for your wonderful comments and support. Till next time big hugs M xxx

Occasional Greetings

Helllooooooooooooo, gosh I thought I will never blog again. I wasn’t being slack not updating my blog for the last few days instead I was having words with my computer and Blogger, from being able to upload photos to my blog in a snap all of a sudden I couldn’t and no one seemed to know why?  can you say frustrating ? anyway I am sure you’re not interested in my ramblings so here it goes.
THERE ARE ONLY 5 MORE PLACES AVAILABLE ON YM NEXT CLUB!! contact me to book your place now, you will love getting a little bit of product each month and collecting big benefits in the month you are the hostess, CLICK the SPREAD THE COST button at the top of my blog for more details..
Also check out the retiring list some items are already gone forever if there’s anything you like the look of don’t hold off to long.
I am showing off the set that I almost won’t be able to live without come next month Occasional Greetings
And this particular stamp is my favourite from this set, a bargain price at only £18.57!!! Of course it has a lovely father’s day greetings, weddings suitable ones, Christmas, Anniversary you get the idea is a fab one to have in your sentiment stash. Here’s the close up of the flower made with circle punches in various sizes.

A very simple to achieve card in bright yummy colours.
Dimensions:
Start with a piece of whisper white card measuring 10cmx14. Using the 1 1/4”square punch and designer paper scrap from the brights stack punch out 6 squares in various colours. Stick them down to the whisper white piece the run it through the big shot and the top note die.
Ink your stamp using various colours markers and stamp on the top of your white top note piece.
Add to a pre scored card blank , ruffle some ribbon over the seam of the squares and add your flower.
To make the flower punch out 4 circles with 1 1/4” circle punch, 4 circles with 1 3/8”circle punch, and 2 circles with 1 3/4” circle punch
scrunch all the shapes together and rough them up then stick with tombow on top of each other.
Here’s the supply list: All products Stampin’Up! unless otherwise stated.
PAPER: Early Espresso, Whisper White, Brights collection designer paper stack
INK: Early espresso, Pumpkin Pie, Melon Mambo and tempting turquoise markers
STAMPS: Occasional Greetings
TOOLS: Big shot, top note die, 1 1/4”square punch, 1/14”circle punch, 13/8”circle punch, 1 3/4”circle punch,
ACCESSORIES: old olive sating ribbon.
Want to know what else I have been making? My own BUTTER !!

I am so giddy about it you would think I discovered the meaning of life.  I pay £2.98 for 500 gr. of my fave brand of butter (I don’t like margarine or other vegetable spreads it has to be butter) and for £1.60 I made nearly 600 gr of the most delicious butter ever, it taste just like the one my grandma used to make on the farm when I was a child.
Want to know the best bit about it? it olny takes 4 minutes to make your own butter in the Thermomix. it!!
Right I am off as I have a million things to do ready for the Harrogate Show this weekend, till next time hugs xxx