Monday 22 October 2012

Crafty Creatives - What's in the box?!


A very exciting project has taken over my life!  Crafty Creatives is a genius idea involving a box sent to your door every month containing craft goodies with a different theme, all for just £10!  This is the first box I have received although there have been three more previously and I decided that after seeing other people's boxes and projects on Facebook, that enough was enough and I had to sign up!

When my postman knocked on the door and presented me with my box I immediately rushed in and opened it! 

This is the beautiful paper I was greeted with when I opened the box and I did not want to take the sticker off in case I ruined it!  But after a successful opening I was like a kid in a toy shop when this is the beautiful sight before my eyes:


Goodies!

I could not wait to get stuck in but did not know where to start as it was all too exciting!
There were packages, envelopes containing crafts, materials and papers all with a Gothic theme to it.


This is a card where on the back it tells you exactly what the box contains with links to websites for handy tips and advice on how to use the materials.


In one of the envelopes, this piece of kit helps you to create your own masquerade mask!  I mean, this box was made for me!  What you see here is a guide on how to, a piece of black ribbon, a white cutting of tulle and black fabric paint.  As I write this I have begun to make mine and it involves tracing the mask and painting over the tulle, mine has to dry over night so watch this space for results!


The more I delved into the box, the more I could not believe what I was seeing!  This little group contains a large, winged pendant, two mini keys, a glass pendant, and two ring blanks in gothic style.  I have no idea how I will use these but I am looking forward to experimenting with them all, maybe a key ring will be involved and a necklace!


I am a big scrapbooking fan, so these materials will come in handy on my travels, including green spider mesh, black lace, and black non-woven fabric.


I squealed when I came across these skull beads!  I am a huge skull fan, even having one tattooed on my arm, so I may make these into a bracelet to fit my arm!


In the other envelope were these silver studs which I may use to jazz up a plain black top, or to use in a scrap book that I am in the middle of at the moment containing my rock gig tickets, these would fit that theme perfectly!


Gothic papers!  
These are so beautiful that I don't actually want to cut these up and use them but they cant just sit in a box rotting away either!  Spoilt for choice!


And finally, a collection of feathers to be used as I wish!

The excitement never ended when I had finished taking everything out the box because then I had the tough decision of how I would use each of the items throughout my life!  And once I have finally come to that conclusion, box number five will be on its way and I'll have to decide all over again!  
This project is better than christmas itself so thank you Crafty Creatives for losing me my social life and keeping me indoors opening and closing my box!











Thursday 18 October 2012

Day Zero Project - Have a Baby

Obviously,  I wanted another baby before I wrote out my Day Zero Project list otherwise my son would just be deemed as another challenge to tick off my list which is just wrong!  But I put it on my list because I was hoping to have a baby within the time limit of 101 days, and we successfully achieved this!

Meet baby Matthew Zane!

This was the first picture taken of him so he looks quite puffy and nothing compared to how he looks now!
  Matthew was five days late so I was pretty fed up.  I was huge, being a normally petite girl anyway, and my bump looked so strange as he was lying in an awkward position!
  I woke up on the Saturday morning and it was literally go, go, go as from that point my contractions began and after a very quick, yet extremely intense labour, he was born at 8:30pm.  I found this labour worse than my labour with my other son, maybe because it was so quick but I got through it on gas and air and pethidine.  When I was having contractions at home, I had the aid of my gym ball and a Tens machine but after a couple of hours using both, I gave up and found just leaning over my desk helped more!
  Matthew was a healthy 8lb 2oz which is heavy for me as Jacob was 7lb 1oz when he was born! 
We had to stay in hospital for two nights overall as he was a little jaundice and had a slight temperature, even though the heat in there did not help!

When we finally arrived home, we had visitors from both grandparents and my wonderful friend Kate who was a big help throughout.  I was worried about having visitors so soon as I had bad baby blues with my first baby but this time around I valued the company and have been more cheerier, I only had a couple of days of tears and then I almost felt back to normal!

Now, five weeks on and 3lb heavier, Matthew is settled in a daily routine, and is a very good baby.  He makes us laugh when he smiles, and is up twice in the night for feeds but we are handling the lack of sleep quite well!

I am now about to bore you with what I think are adorable photos of Matthews first month in the world, and the different facial expressions he has!





 
And lets not forget Matthew has a big brother!  Jacob has been brilliant with him, very protective and enjoys trying to entertain him.  He is very helpful but also still enjoys playing on his own or with his friend and asks a lot of questions about how Matthew will be when he is older.
 


 
Matthew recognises mummy, daddy and Jacob now by showing us a big gummy smile which just melts our heart!
Challenge complete!
xxxx
 
 


Apologies to my loyal followers!!

Yes, I am back and boy, have I missed blogging!  The reason I have neglected it so, is because I had a baby!  My last post was in July and after this, it was the six weeks holiday and I just did not get the time or the motivation to pop onto my laptop and write anything.  I have so much stored up though and so many post ideas that its back logged in my baby brain and may show itself in the next few weeks!

So, now I have my motivation back and even with a new baby at home, I hope to find the time to continue blogging as I like to keep loyal to my readers, and enjoy having the odd rant here and there!

Apologies to you all who have continued to follow me and to those that gave up on me but I hope to reward you all with regular posts, updates and pictures galore!