Long time no blog

Wow, where has the time gone been such a long, long time since my last confession, blushes profusely :)

Made sooooooooooo much since my last post in August so I will be uploading those over the next week or so too :) Inc child friendly, healthy, fat free vitamin boosting Ben 10 soup and my new obsesion crochet and tons of sewing and papercrafting makes. Beware, theres LOTS LOL

Got some delicious Laura Ashley fabric destined to be made into something divine and some fab 1950s dresses to make, will blog them in due course :)

Also been sketching again :-0 I know, I was ACTUALLY WORKING, truly :)So I am going to add some freebies to the blog also for your papercrafting or embroidered delights :)and finally get the website up and running I am such a lazy, lazy mare, hangs head in utter shame.

Time to get my 'arse' back in gear and hopefully a lot smaller 'arse' in a couple of months time thanks to the wonders of Slimming World’s Food Optimising :)

I am a woman on a mission and now back in the 'zone' so to speak. So I shall be whining and whinging, celebrating and no doubt at times crying on here for all to see in the coming months. Hopefully it won't be such a bumpy ride, crosses fingers, toes, arms, legs and everything else crossable…

I have made some delicious things over the past week if I don’t say so myself and photographed them too hurrah :)so when I finally track down the camcorder upload wire that has somehow magically morphed into 'the teenagers' iPod wire I'll upload them :)

I intend on being a good 'her indoors' and cook everything from scratch. Even get some Body Magic in with some…. with some…. with some …1950s stylee (almost faints) housework, scrambles to scoop ‘gob, upeth floor’ LOL. The fact that I have just gone Vegetarian seven weeks ago after a visit to the Chapel of Rest (RIP Nana) and living in a house full of carnivores is going to be a challenge in itself! So my recipes will be a mix of Veggie/Vegan meals and adapted carnivorous meals. Basically the same meal split half way through adding meat for the carnivores and meat replacements pour moi :)and lots n lots of 'sweet stuff' :)

The ’young un’ is still off with the Chicken Pox (been over three extremely ‘trying’ weeks now) as he decided to catch them just before returning to preschool after the two week half term break! Not very considerate is it…only joking…ish ….LOL. So I haven’t been getting my usual 40 minutes of walking Body Magic in. This normally saves me from a gain on a Tuesday evening despite the sweet tooth. So I really, really must address this. Jackie @ my local SW group swears that a bit of ‘how’s your Father’ is this best type of Body Magic going. I suppose she may have a valid point and you wouldn’t even have to leave the bed let alone the house then tuck into a nice Cadburys creme egg (9 Syns)

Now according to my calculations a creme egg has 173.6 calories and according to the self professed ‘most accurate calorie counter’ here you’d have to be a blinking nymphomaniac to burn that many cals.

In fact my ‘most useful information snippet of the day’ today is in direct relation to ‘said counter’ and it is;

5 mins of backpacking uses 5 times more cals than foreplay and almost twice as much as 5 mins of sex! So there you go, now you know :)


So my advice for the day would be. If you fancy treating yourself to a couple of creme eggs (as one is NEVER,EVER,EVER ENOUGH) and are running a little shy on the old Syns front and are looking to work in some body magic to work it off then try this for size, wink, wink :) (5 mins each unless otherwise stated)

Fein a headache, have a 5 minute nap (6 cals) , take a shower (31 cals), brush your teeth (18 cals), get a guitar out and play a catchy ditty (23 cals), slow ballroom dance (22 cals) yourself to the kitchen to cook a 5 minute omelette (19 cals) (with a third Superfree don’t forget, wink), wash the dishes (16 cals), do a spot of ironing (16 cals) then get a bit of 5 minute tailoring in (19 cals) and cut yourself out a nice 50s style pinny and hot pad to go with your new 50s stylee lifestyle (patterns and instructions to follow in a future confession), weave a quick cloth (27 cals) to make into a shiny new duster, use duster for a quick 5 min dash around (21 cals) on the way to the front door, making yourself presentable by the hallway mirror coffering your hair into a 50s style peak of utter perfection (19 cals), talk on the phone (7 cals) to your pal to arrange a meet up on then heading on your merry way, rake the lawn (29 cals), after washing the car (33 CALS), walk (20 cals) to the tennis club for a game of tennis doubles (31 cals) ending with a quick 3 minute game of billiards…..RESULT!

Thew I am knackered with a capital K after just reading that maybe Jackie’s suggestion is worth considering after all?

Will be back later to upload some recipes and my ‘Tuesday night weigh in confession’, thanks for visiting :)

Cheers ears
Rachel-Louise :)

Long time, no blog :)

Good Morning everyone :) Long time, no blog, cheesy grin :)

Well I didn't think the sun that I awoke to yesterday would last too long, it's chucking it down here again,smirk. Typical, on a day when Pickles decides to lie in I have to get up and have breakfast. Probably in my head now but all I can think about is how thrirsty I am LOL and I know I can't do anything about it,sulks. Hopefully the other ops will be quickies ;-) and I won't have to wait until tea time for my turn. Wish I was crafting or sewing or doing mundane things today instead, can't stop worrying. Going to try and track my LGC crochet mag down to take with me, see if I can't finally get it! LOL. Hopefully there will be somebody in there waiting for an op that isn't as thick as me and can help me out LOL. Then I am off for a bath. Silly thing to do really thinking about it, mad thirsty and sitting in a huge container full of lovely H20, LOL. Ah well I have had my instructions to have one, so best had. I hope you are all well and the sun is shining where you are and you all have a lovely day and ((((hugs)))) to those who aren't or can't :)

Cheers ears :)

Hair corsage fascinator sewing projects

Long time no blog. Sorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry, cheesy grin :) OK I have been up to so much since my last confession so I shall try and catch up with my blog posts and post some photo's of some makes over the next few days. I promise, you do believe me don't you LOL

OK, whilst looking for a book for Pinkpuppy earlier on in my disgrace of a craft room, which incidentally I have still yet to find, shifs about nervously. I came upon two large sweet tins full of ribbons and trims. So I decided that to get back into the swing of sewing again with a few small projects. Pickles has been very demanding during the day so I have decided to get back into the swing of things by making some corsages and then some brooches and other small accessories and then move back onto my beloved bags. I was getting all inspired by the utterly gorgeous creations I have been perusing on here the past month or so. I know, I know, I am rambling on again :red: So back to business :)

I have a very nice but very plain black trench coat. As I have almost lost a stone in the past month I am getting brave :lol: Not quite brave enough to go the whole hog and abandon by usual black attire, but trying to introduce a cheeky hint of colour. I went through my new found stash and have picked out various black, silver and hot pink ribbons, trims and threads etc and I am going to make a corsage for my beloved trenchie. Wish me luck, I have found my invisible thread and I am about to embark on my first sewing project in what must be a year I think. Whenever it was I posted Hunny Bunny on here. (long, boring story) I'll update this post with my progress :)







I am still struggling with uploading pics from my camcorder, so so sorry for the poor picture quality, blushes with shame.

Through the lack of sew in brooch pins and the lighting not being very good in here I decided it can have a dual purpose and try it as a hair corsage in the meantime. I have just spent the past three quarters of an hour running around the house trying to bribe Pickles into modelling it for me in his hair LOL I ended up scrambling around trying to find a what I thought would be my as new Girls World head, smirk. I bought it myself a few years back to practice French plaits in as my DD didn't have the patience to sit there,sulks. I can't have anything in this house, truly I can't. I carefully took her out of her perfectly kept box (even through house moves) and when I turned it around :bug: the little what not (I said a little more at the time as you can probably imagine LOL Her perfect blonde hair now had a bright pink fringe and bright pink speckled face, Kids arrggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Arrggghhhh at long last I have managed to update this with photo’s of the actual corsage itself. The lighting isn’t very good though I am afraid. The hot pink is deeper in reality and the shimmery and hot pink ribbons glisten. Now I can actually get around to making some more.







'n' SOME MORE............

Please excuse Goldies hair, rolls eyes. I was horrified when I clapped eyes on her. I had kept the box and the head, I thought in perfect condition. I haven’t used it in years since in our last house. My DD was under no illusion at the time that it was mine (to practice French plaits on) and she WASN’T to touch it. Maybe I grounded her one day and she got annoyed with me ROFL Just you wait until she gets in from college. She has some explaing to do LOL. She will most probably deny all knowledge, huffs. Must have been those peskey house elves again, yeah right!







Heres another corsage a little larger than the last one, definately one for my trenchie rather than the hair this time :) From the same jar of ribbons and threads, but using different ones. This time incorpoating silver with the black and hot pink Please excuse the models hair it’s like straw to brush. Reminds me of my late guinea pigs. Sorry degressing there, cheesy grin.

This one is larger again modelled by the lovely Goldie due to the lack of brooch pins Sorry about the camera glare, on the camcorder again :( The middle bit that is glaring and not quite coming out right in the pics is handmade from individul black and silver sequins
gems and then surrounded by individual pink sequins in a circle. Tried to get a close up but it keeps on dazzling me. I will replace these photo's with better ones when I can get my little mitts on Kevinas digital camera :)








I'll be back...................................................Later :)

Cheers ears :)

Chuckle Monkey card :)

The slideshow above may take a minute to fully load and display :)

This was one of my first ever Chuckle Monkey cards. It took a while as all the images were handrawn (they are now available as stamps from Spiral Whisper, see posts below) They were then coloured using Derwent watercolour pencils and watercolour paints :)

With my OH getting back from working away at last and having a good nights sleep,oh and I sooooo needed it. I will be able to buckle down and make some more Chuckles n Giggles cards this evening. Including images you HAVEN'T SEEN YET, wink, wink, nudge,nudge. Off to supervise the watering of the chillies, tomatoes, cucumbers and some other strange things growing in the corner of the greenhouse now (cheesy grin) Not going any where near it until I can be sure that hugggggggggggge dinner plate sized spider has gone, filthy dirty crawling manky creature thing that it is. Urggggggggggggh.

Cheers ears :)

PS I'll pop back on later with my creations and to pop some of the workshop in progress photos on :) 'n' photos of my new yet to be named beloved, already dressmakers dummy I got yesterday :) I'm hoping to catch up on some sewing tonight as well as cardmaking. I have some lovely Laura Ashley fabric I have been dying to attack LOL

New digital art stamp website to launch very soon

Oooooops knew I 4got to mention something. As some people may already know I have been thinking about setting up my own website selling digital art stamps, digital scrapbooking and card kits, 3D decoupage, templates and CD ROMS etc for quite a while now.

Don't worry I will still be providing free images too :)

Well the kogs have well and truly been put into motion and it is almost ready to launch. Which I am utterly ecstatic about. I will be releasing some more details regarding it and some sneeky peeks when I am a little more compus mentus over the next week or so LOL.

If there is anything in particular that you would like to see us provide to suit your digital crafting needs then please drop us an Email


Now I really AM going to bed.

Night, night all, don't let the bed bugs bite :)

Wow 132 unique hits already today, thanks :)

Wow, I couldn't believe my eyes just when I logged onto Crafty Blogs and discovered that I have had 132 unique hits already today (beaming from ear to ear) thank you so much. So thanks to everyone on here that has visited me today (throws lovey kisses out at ya in bucket loads)

If you’d care to leave a ickle comment on my blog if you download the images then that would be much appreciated :) I'd love to know who has visited me :)

If you are here looking for the new free Tarquin The Tree Frog digital art stamp images then please scroll down a couple of posts.

FREE ARTWORK AND DOWNLOADS

You can download free Chuckle Monkey art images here
and here

Click on your browsers back button or the main Ickle Pickle Pumpkin Pie image to return to the home page.

Thank you very, very much for visiting. Please leave a comment b4 you leave and please check back soon as another member of the gang is going to be intoduced to you all very, very soon. I'll also be adding some other very exciting digital downloads, templates and tutorials too very, very soon. Keep checking back often or bookmark to see exactly what I have up my sleeve (wink, wink)

Anyhoo, thanks again for visiting I hope that you all have a lovely day and (hugs) to those that can't :)

Cheers ears :)

So, so busy

So, so busy. I had a date with some ducks, a loaf of bread and a impatient toddler yesterday. We finally got to nip out for a walk to the canal yesterday evening when my OH got back from working away. We had missed the sun but it was still very warm. We stopped off at the fish and chip shop on the way for a bag of squishy chips laddened in and salt and vinegar, yummmmmmmmm. No I haven't gone mad I just haven't had them in a while with being on a diet and oven chips just aren't the same :(



We didn't get to get see any swans as the canal bank was full of children having a fishing competition. But we did get to feed the ducks though. The mallards are Pickles favourite. They keep flying over to visit us in our back garden for a spot of bread.



We even got to see the baby ducklings. My oh my have they grown from last week.



With the fishing competition we didn't think that we'd get to see any canal barges, but luckily there was one :) I shall have to get some more pics when the canal bank isn't full of people fishing, they are utterly gorgeous and so colourful and the people on them are so friendly. They always wave and say hello to Pickles and I as they pass.



To Pickles utter amazement a hand glider flew over us too.



We were going to walk up to the cricket club and take a look at the moo moos (cows) but I was very tired and my feet were hurting from wearing silly shoes walking over the cobbled street. So as we passed the church we decided to stop off at the Inn next door as it was a nice evening had had a lovely cold pint of Shandy and a bag of ready salted (shhhh don't tell anybody)



Pickles has just gone down for a nap. My daughter is studying and my OH is working from home. So I am just nipping out now into the garden to do some more planting out and potting up. I can barely get into the greenhouse now it's that full and it has that gorgeous tomato plant smell as you go in, heaven. Probably due to the fact that there are over 100 tomato plants in there. I know I know, I got giddly as I did with the 200+ sunflower plants I grew. Going to have tomatoes coming out of our ears soon, plenty of pastas sauces though, yummy and so good to preserve or freeze.

Remember my cut and come again bistro lettuce ? We've feasted on it for weeks, marvellous stuff. You do literally cut it and it comes back again and it is sooooooo delicious.



Then if Pickles is still asleep when we've finished I'm going to start on my pincushions. Then hopefully some more hair bobbles and pins and some more cosmetic purses and just some sewing in general. I've still got some roman blinds and circle dolls to do.

As always thank you very much for visiting and please call back again soon. I'll hopefully be back on later to add another post :)

Cheers ears :)

New download

Hi everyone and once again thank you very much for visiting my blog :)

I have been run off my feet again this week with my OH being away all week again and I have a terrible cold with hayfever on top and it's too hot!!! Phew moan over.

I am hoping to start on some roman blinds over the weekend and some bags, cosmetic purses and other bits and bobs. The greenhouse looks like a jungle, I have so much to plant out, so hoping to fit some gardening in too.

I will be adding a new download over the weekend too so please bookmark me and keep checking back often :)

Cheers ears :)

Meet Honey Bunny :)

Apologies in advance for the poor picture quality. I would like to introduce you to Honey Bunny (honey bunny because of the colour of his fur, although you can’t really tell due to the camcorder piccies) His is in mid make, I made him a week last Saturday but I have been unable to finish him off as Pickles has claimed him and drags him around everywhere with him by his ears I managed to sneak him out of his cot whilst he was sleeping to take some photo’s of him. His face still needs stitching on or I may leave it rustic and blank, haven’t decided yet and I need to make him some ickle baby dungarees and I am going to make him a girlfriend too I have designed him myself from scratch no pattern and I’ll be doing the same with his clothes. He looks a bit like a body builder at this stage I know with all his muscles but I designed him that way so he can be posed and floppy and cuddly. I will hopefully get him finished this week if I can get hold of him again. I should have measured him for clothes when I sneaked him off.LOL

Here are some Hunny Bunny photos in mid make :)




Some more photos including Hunny Bunny striking a pose LOL :)



Last but not least a close up of his ears and a side on view. Hope you like him