Home Sweet Home

At work we had a collection for Laura C. She is leaving us to go on maternity leave and won't be back for nine whole months!

She is a very creative crafty person so I knew she would appreciate something with a little thought and effort put into it.  So I discussed my idea with my co-workers and they all agreed she would love this gift.

Here is the before shot [after a long day of shopping in the 68° heat]...

... For Ikea!

Today was my Saturday to work so when I got out at 1:00pm I went and picked Laura C up and we headed off to Ikea and Hobbycraft.

I was in search of Shadow Box Frames. Yes I know they shouldn't be that difficult to find but over here it was! Thankfully Ikea had them and not at a too bad of a price either. I picked up a couple white ones and a black one.

Even though it is against my very nature to buy anything from Hobby 'Rip You Off' Craft (because of how much they jack up their prices) there are some things that you just can't find anywhere else so we also stopped by there. I ended up finding the cutest flower paper punches so I picked those up. They were not even that expensive either which was a shock!

Laura C brought me her Beatrix Potter books that she has had since she was little. I have been wanting to read the stories and since I don't own them it was very nice of her to loan me hers.

Now I just have to pull myself away from cross stitching long enough to read them.

Today was our Christmas lunch at work where we get to exchange our Secret Santa gifts. You can rest assured that this was not Christian's only gift but if it was I am sure he would have been just as happy.

I give him a 9 out of 10. I had to mark him off one point because he was picking the thong out of his butt during this photo shoot.


These are all of my Christmas cards from co-workers. As you can see Laura M will do anything she can to get in a photo... But I will forgive her as she was my Secret Santa and she bought me a beautiful Christmas table runner that I had been admiring while we were out at Botany Bay back on November 21st. Apparently she gave Laura C the money for it and she bought it with me there with them on that day! See... anything can get by me as I had no idea something was up. I was going to take a photo of it today but I think it deserves it's own day so I will hold off.


It also snowed off and on all day and because it was showing no signs of stopping they let us go home early today. I was supposed to be there until 5:00pm so I was able to leave an hour early which was nice. The roads were pretty bad so the extra time helped before the major traffic started.

Oh and for those of you that have not noticed but to the right there is a link to my new 'Crafty Christine' blog. I started it as a way to try to keep track of all of my crafty projects that I have going on. It will not be updated every day but I will do my best to update on new projects that I start and complete.

I actually made a Scrapbook Calendar as my Secret Santa gift for my Supervisor. I have posted pictures of it on that blog if you would like to see it.

Tonight was the night! After work Andy and I hurried home so that I could eat and get ready for Laura H to arrive so we could take the train into Manchester to see The Rocky Horror Show.

I did not go all out getting dressed up but I borrowed a pink feather boa from Rachel at work, I had on bright red lipstick and even had gold glitter on my eyes. This was going all out for me and I was quite proud that I took public transportation with all of this on.
Of course others did go all out.

Christian, Nicola and Helen

I would say Christian wins the award for dressing up out of our group. I believe his only complaint was that he didn't have any suspenders and his stockings kept falling down.

The show was excellent! I would challenge anybody to go see this and not have a good time, it would have to be impossible. We were in the Circle which was the first balcony and when everybody got up to do The Time Warp the floor was bouncing up and down. I was glad that they made these old buildings to last! Our Narrator was Dave Spikey (from Phoenix Nights) and he was very funny. As you can imagine there is a lot of banter between the cast and the audience at this show and he gave very quick and witty comebacks to the things that were being yelled at him.

I will leave you with one last picture... This is the gentleman that was sitting next Laura H and I. As you can see... his (uhmmmm) crotch area was lit up all night. I doubt it was Laura and I that he was trying to attract with the light however. At one point he sprayed this really horrible smelling perfume and he somehow managed to get it all over Laura's arm so she also got to smell as cheap as him. : )

A friend from work, Laura C, gave me some corn kernels so that I could make some popcorn. Andy and I don't have a microwave and I have been craving it!

The first batch I made pepper popcorn (don't hate it is delicious) and the second go I made some caramel popcorn which was also great. This was the first time I have ever made popcorn on the stove top.

Tonight a bunch of us from work got together for a night of chilli and Cranium. It was a lot of fun and I didn't get home until 2:00am. Lots of laughs! Laura M forgot her UK version of Cranium so I had to bring my American version. It was fun playing it with a bunch of Brits. However I think it was used as a bit of an excuse to get a new card when something was unknown by the person picking it up... I heard "Either I'm daft or this is American" quite a lot. It was fun seeing one team trying to figure out which president's face is on the $50 bill though.

High: 42°
Low: 40°
Forecast: Cloudy
Sunrise: 8:09 AM
Sunset: 3:52 PM

It is official... Meg has opened the gift I made for her, Matt and their little bunny so I can also share photos that I took prior to posting it out to her.

I knew of Meg's love for all things Beatrix Potter so when I was thinking about what to make I was searching for anything Peter Rabbit. I also thought this would be fitting since they have called their little bundle of joy 'bunny' for as long as I can remember.

When I came across a pattern book that had twelve of the cutest patterns that also told a portion of the story I knew it would be perfect for a baby quilt.

I officially started cross stitching it on August 29th and have worked pretty much non-stop on it since then. Meg knew I was making something for her and I kept telling her she would have to keep her legs crossed until I was done as I wanted it to get to her before the little guy's arrival.

Well I made it in the nick of time as she is due next week. You can read what Meg and Matt thought about it here. But to let you in on the secret... they love it! Yay!

I am so glad they love it and it makes me happy to know it is going to be on display in bunny's nursery as a wall hanging.

Her blog about the quilt truly did make me cry. It is amazing how close we have become even though we have never met in person. Meg has quickly become one of my best friends and I am so thankful that even though we live 87 miles from each other we are only a text away. She is the reason for getting the larger texting package on my iPhone! I am so happy for Meg and Matt and their little guy is coming into this world with two great parents and into a home with a lot of love. And Meg I know you are reading this and I know your pregnancy hormones are going crazy so don't start crying... just know that if you ever need anything Andy and I are here for you guys!

Now to the pictures...

Back


As you can see I have blurred out bunny's name. Other than their family and myself (well I am an honorary aunt) the name is being kept a secret until his arrival.

I walked to the Post Office today on my lunch and posted out the gift to Meg. I have had a lot of fun working on it but I am happy that it is on it's way to her now and just in time for the bundle of joy to make his appearance.

I feel odd now though because I have been working on it non-stop since August 29th so it feels weird to come home from work and not have it to work on it. Nic, a co-worker, has asked that I stitch a freebie pattern of Robert Pattinson (Edward to fellow Twi-Hards) so while I am slowly working on that I may stitch a little bit on Nova also.

High: 39°
Low: 29°
Forecast: Late Rain and Snow
Sunrise: 8:02 AM
Sunset: 3:55 PM

Phase Two has officially started! Now back to working on it...

High: 44°
Low: 41°
Forecast: Rain
Sunrise: 7:50 AM
Sunset: 4:02 PM

Laura M, Laura C, Laura H and I went shopping today and to look at some beautiful Christmas displays. I made a joke that I would be standing out today not because I am the only American but because my name is not Laura!

The above photo is from Barton Grange which is a huge Garden Center and they have all of their Christmas displays set up as 'Christmas Around The World'. This is from India and I love the colors. Because there were so many beautiful displays it was very difficult to pick a picture for today.

I have posted all of the other photos here so please take a second and look through them, there was some beautiful items. We even ran into Laura White from last years X Factor signing in Preston!

Remember this post regarding my new project? I have been working on this project non-stop and finally this morning I put the finishing touches on phase one.

Yes you heard me right there are two phases to this project but I am so very pleased to be done with this first part as it was the hardest bit. I have to go this weekend to buy some additional things to finish it off and then I will take my pictures of the finished project.

No you will not be able to see it right away because it is a gift for somebody (I wonder who it could be) and they read this blog so until it gets shipped and opened by them I will not be giving anything away!

Trust me though.... it is going to be beautiful!

High: 48°
Low: 45°
Forecast: A Couple of Showers
Sunrise: 7:40 AM
Sunset: 4:10 PM

Well... Lisa didn't move far but today was the day. Pretty much right after we got to work she got told it was start moving over to her new team.

I sent her a text letting her know that I missed her around the time I took this photo. I hope she doesn't think I'm stalking her when she reads my blog for today...

High: 58°
Low: 48°
Forecast: Partly Sunny
Sunrise: 8:02 AM
Sunset: 5:45 PM

Meet Lisa. She is my co-worker neighbor and she flat out makes me laugh. There are no ifs, ands or buts about it... she makes me laugh and a day without a little Lisa laughter is a very sad day indeed.

But I have a feeling she is going to be moving desks soon as she is going over to another team. When that happens we will just have to laugh with each other across the room instead.

Today is a double photo, there was a rainbow as we were driving into work this morning. I'm sorry the photo is all wonky but I was trying to hurry up and take it before a building got in the way.


High: 55°
Low: 48°
Forecast: Partly Sunny
Sunrise: 7:58 AM
Sunset: 5:49 PM