MY AMAZINGLY UBER FABBY PARENTS!!!!!

Sorry for shouting my title but that's exactly what they are! They have only gone and secretly booked me tickets for a band that I've loved for more than half my life THE RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

They wrapped the booking slip in an envelope for me to open & when I did I couldn't move and could feel the tears swell in my eye and the only word I could say was wow! Every time i think about it I start crying, sad I know if your not a fan but I've loved them since I was 15 and never made it to jig & this was going to be a dream for me, oh so I thought Thank you Mum & Dad you have no idea how happy I am & what a wonderful gift you've given me, not everyone can fulfill a dream for someone xxx

Elmo has been busy

Poor Elmo has been busy, for a change, with mothers day and then baby Ava made an appearance on Wednesday so that was two more to my list, got some inspiration from UKscrappers website the girls there have been making these great book cards so these where my attempts, a mothers day card & card for baby Ava and then i didn't want Jamie to be left out so though I'd send his a big bro card.

Some new on the shop front, the council have sent my plans back as they are incomplete :O( Never mind i have an architect helping out now keeping me in the right path so fingers crossed when I send them off next week thee will be nothing wrong.

Tarting about

Thought I'd tart up a great little utensil holder I've managed to source for selling in the shop, I had came across a fab one from pampered chef but it was £23ish before adding anything, they will work out about £10 blank which is more easier on the pocket. It was good fun and my new crop-a-dile sliced through it like paper so I was even more impressed with it and i made use of Elmo which I'm guilty of not doing as much as I should, i it was a pain trying to remember how to weld words but I got there in the end with the great help available on UKscrappers.

Light my fire!

It was such a lovely morning today I thought I'd take the opportunity to get some pics of my little pot belly stove, its soooo sweet! I haven't been able to light it yet but that will hopefully be tomorrow if all the cement has dried & should be a real nice feature in the shop.

This is a pic of my new card stand, Mum & Dad headed out to the auction a few weeks ago and spied this beauty, I haven got the drawers in as it weighs a ton and I've been moving it about a lot trying to figure out how to layout the shop.

My lovely patio which my Dad has been working hard on, it's not quite finished yet, once we get planning he'll put up a fence around it blocking it off from the main garden but so far it's looking swell.

It's been so long

I can't believe how long since my last posting, I've been a busy bunny. I had my three day business course which was great fun & met some real fab people, it was amaing to hear their business ideas and they were all so different from each other, it was a real eye opener and will hopefuly stand me in good stead for the shop. On that fron things are moving slowly but never mind there is nothing you can do about the planning dept's work load, they have contaceted us to say that we do need full planning permission which is a bit of a bummer so we're are busy filling in the mountain of forms needed. I have bought my stove for the shop it is a fab little pot bellied one, it's getting fitted on Monday and i will hopefully be able to light it Thursday so I'll et some pics on later.

I've had a tidy up of my jewellery site added some new ranges and put a load of pendants in reduced so if your looking for a bargin then pop in here is an idea of whats on offer,

The BIG Meeting!

Well I was a nervous wreck on Monday morning to say the least, hubby wasn't much help, my appointment was at 11am i I couldn't help clock watching. Anyway we eventually got there and had a great meeting and I'm being taken on board wooohooo It was good to have all my questions answered and to have someone on hand to help me in hat to do next, we went through a loads of things and my next step while i wait for planning permission is a business plan. I have a huge sheet of questions to answer and figures to work out so my advisor can project how much need to make a week to cover costs. I'm being put on a three day business course next month which sounds really great, the big surprise was my advisor wants me to be up and running for Easter!!!!!! how shocked was I when he said that, so fingers crossed i get the permission through fast.
I'm afraid I haven't any pics as I've been working on my homework but hopefully once I'm finished I'll be able to get some on and catch up with my friend on the net :o)
Oh while I remember unfortunately I didn't make it onto the design team with my piece below :o( never mind I'll just have to try somewhere else.

Dreaded cleaning day

I thought I'd get some pics on before I start with the cleaning, i did my first layout of the year wwwooohoooo, it's for a comp that I am taking part in so fingers crossed. We had to make a layout using only black and white with 1 picture and 1 coloured embellish, I know the middle of the flower is yellow but I plan to change it I just can't find my large white brads anywhere. The journal reads:



"This picture was taken when you were only a few months old. I have always loved it because for some reason it seems to stir up so many emotions for that period in our lives. You were the baby & sister for Matthew I never thought we were going to have, love forever & always Mum x."

I looked at the picture of her and wrote down all the feelings I had and the words that popped into my head and decided it would be nice to write them around the photo instead of in the journal. I did start with a sketch for this piece but I'm afraid the finished result looks nothing like it :o)

It was a good excuse to play with my new toy, I ordered a light tent from ebay to try and get better pics of my jewellery & I'm quite surprised with the results, I took picture of the layout and the watch below with only the natural light from my living room, not bad for a first attempt.

New Shoes

I got some fab new shoes today I've been looking for a pair of Dr Marten Air in Sky blue for yonks, I think I'll do a layout of them :o)

What did my Abbie do when she got home from nursery, shreeked oooooooh! and promptly put them on, bless she's just shoe daft no matter who's they are.



I got some jewellery making done today which is a first for the year I'm embarrassed to say. I decided to use my blue beads, I don't use blue very often as it's not ofter requested, I used them with the new gun metal heart clasps I got from the wholesalers.

Got some great suggestions for the shop name coming forward here's some of them so far-

Handmade for you

Carefully crafted

Cullen Chic crafts

Cullen get it
Cullen Skink

Cullens Cove

Sand sea Shell

Cullens Crafty Cavern

Cave Crafting

heaven Crafters Haven
Keep them coming they are all a great help!

I've been a busy bunny today I've no idea why but I shouldn't complain, made a couple of cards ...

....Oh I unpacked my shopping from the weekend as well, picked up a couple of bargain's for the shop just for display I thought it would be nice to fill the shop with nice nick knacks. The large heart candle holder was reduced to 2.00 so I couldn't leave it on the shelf at that price! The gumball machine is something I've always wanted, it was reduced and PINK so I had to have it, I was thinking of putting beads or buttons inside not sure as it looks great empty too!...

....tried to come up with a font I liked for the shop, I made the template in Elmo and I'm rather pleased with the results as it means I don't have to spend a fortune on somwone else doing them & I can size them to what I need, I just have to decide which font I like from these two..... and finally I unpacked another box and found ZIPPY! My craft room has been lost without him, I had packed him away with the Christmas stock by mistake, never mind :o)

Suggestions please!!!

I've just realsied thet I have a meeting next Monday with my business advisor regarding the shop, aaaaaaahhhhh, I just kept telling everyone oh it's on the 20th well it's nearly here already. I'm now wondering if I should have the name for the shop sorted incase I have to fill forms in etc when I'm there so my question to all my visitor is, what do you think?
Some background info, it will be based in a small seaside village called Cullen, I will be selling handmade paper gifts, soap, jewellery & craft goodies and I guess anything shaker style as I lourve that whole look. I came up with the obvious 'Cullen Crafts' but I was wondering if anyone could come up with better, if you can pop your idea in the comments & if I use your idea I'll pop a prize in the post :O)

Boom!

I have my exploding box started, my first try was the pink one but I felt it was too small so I thought I'd be a smart ass and try and re-size what a palava but I managed it, I think the blue one will work a lot better for photo's & will be great for putting a gift in :o)

I also have my first contributor Marjie a friend from the imag-e-nation website a great job well done! Please remember anyone can take part the more the merrier, it's great to see other peoples take on them.

Spent a bit of time in the shop today and managed to get a lot done, all the brick is finished on three sides & I started the last bit. Big mistake! it turns out this last section doesn't want to come off gggrrrr, so I've decided seen as my counter is going there and I'll have to have shelves up it would be better covered in plaster board which thankfully means less work. I never managed to get to Glasgow :o( so hopefully we will get next weekend to check out counters etc.
I had a phone call today from a Personal Impressions rep who was very lovely & will be sending me out some catalogues for me to browse mmmmmmmmm shopping! It was funny though she was telling me that the minimum order amount was 750.00 as if that was going to be a problem hee hee, I could spend that on Quickutz alone.

Monthly Challenge

No Pics I'm afraid today just this little cutie, we've had surprise visitors turn up for a overnight stay that we hadn't saw in ages, we had a curry and a few drinks :O) and a lovely time to boot! Not much crafting will be done over the next few days, I'm working on the shop tomorrow and then off to Glasgow for an overnight stay on Friday, shopping!I'm not going for anything in particular, heading to Ikea for lunch and to check out some fittings for the shop, I'm eyeing up a free standing kitchen for a workspace and a few other bits that will hopefully work out.
Now for the monthly challenge I am setting my self a monthly challenge to try and get my ever increasing pile of photo's scrapped and to try new things to make, if you want you are more than welcome to join in and I'll post any pics you send of your completed item on the site along with my own.
The Challenge: To make an exploding box I've saw a few of and quite fancied a go so fingers crossed, my deadline is the last day of the month.

Using Elmo

I was very kindly given instructions for welding words in Elmo and I had this old broken frame lying around so thought I'd use it with the photo's I took when we had a day in Millport with Mum. I'm quite please with the results & couldn't believe how easy it was to create the words I would recommend a Craft Robo to anyone even if your just looking for a cutter for fonts because if I had to buy all the fonts that I have in dies it would cost a small fortune.

The Plaster is off

As the title suggests we have the plaster off, well most of it the plaster left is falling off the wall if its merely touched so we've concentrated on the harder stuff. We're removing the plaster, wire brushing the stone to clean it up,surprisingly the colour coming through is great, we then brush the stone lightly and seal with water seal paint. Well that's the plan but the cleaning of the stone is taking longer than thought, my dad did managed to get the old toilet out so the only thing left is the sewage hole which he's going to block when he has the right stuff :O) These are the pics I took tonight just to show the progress, the strange pics of the stones are before and after shots, well that's what they are supposed to be, so you can so them uncleaned and then clean. My Mum and Dad have a stove in their living room so Dad suggested we put a small version in the old fire place, it also means I don't have to put in any heating and the logs are cheap from the mill. The pic showing the stairs will hopefully be changed so the stairs are turned into where the till area is, if you know what I mean, so no one can get upstairs and then when downstairs is up and running we plan to sort it so I can run classes upstairs out the way of the shop.

Let there be light!

I made this ages ago after seeing a few beautiful creations in the two peas web site and I quite fancied a go, I think I may have made the photo a bit large but it was my first atempt and i wasn't holding out much hope for sucess. I used the old tracing paper through the printer method and just embellished with TLC stickers and Prima flowers with brads to hold them in. I think they will be great for the shop with the picture that I've taken of the village, great for the tourists and I can also offer them personalised with I think would be a great gift.

Our Christmas Faves

These are my pride and joy, sad I know but I fell in love when I saw them. I got them from a little shop in Swindon when we lived there about 4 years ago, but when it comes to Christmas I forget to put them out for the meal hee hee.
The other pics are some decorations from our tree and from around the house.