Here's my Tree...

Father Christmas can come to my house whenever he wants to now ... coz I am all ready for him.

My tree,  which is 7ft tall,  is in it's usual corner of the dining area  with all the sparkly lights on it .

I have dressed it in gold this year and added bows and baubles and THREE sets of lights.

I will add the presents as they are wrapped around the bottom.

They will be opened on Christmas Day before we all sit down to Roast turkey with all the trimming.

Can you see the stripes in the wall ??? They look a strange colour in the lamplight but I assure you they are cream.  The top view is from the centre of the room into the dining area.

This is looking to the lounge area and everything is neat and tidy again and I am shattered.

So if you will excuse me now I am going to go and put my butt ... in the corner of that settee ... with a glass of well earned red wine and watch some TV for a while.

Hugs xx

Decorating Done ...... (Phew)

 What a busy weekend this has been but the decorating is now finished.

A while ago we removed all the wallpaper from our walls and made them super smooth to paint instead.

But I wanted to add some stripes to the walls in the lounge and this is how we did it.

The base colour is applied first and allowed to dry and then we had to use low tack masking tape and measure out the stripes.

You  can just see  how it looked once we had done that and they look like one thick and one thin stripe but when the tape is removed the stripes are all the same width.

The next step was to roll all the thicker stripes with Varnish and I used the Satin low odour one.

Before the Varnish is dry remove the tape and the stripes are then on the wall.

That way you won't pull off the newly painted base layer along with your tape.

And here you can see the result once the wall is completed and the stripes look really neat.

The painting that you can see in the photo is a very large canvas that cost very little.

I laid it on top of an upturned tub in the garage and copied it from a post card that I bought from Ikea.

And all I used was emulsion that I had used in the house.

The only other thing I bought was a little tester pot of red to colour the orchid that the first girl is carrying.

When I first did this canvas it looked wrong.... until I added in the shading on the clothes and then it all came together.... and I am very pleased with the result.

So my house is getting back to normal and tomorrow I will show you the end result with the tree in pride of place.

Hugs xx

We have a Winner ...

Thank you so much to everybody who took part in the draw to win the  Enveloplus Board   from 

  Crafters Companion

This is such a useful piece of equipment for all the boxes and envelopes that maybe needed for larger projects.

I wish I had more of them to offer but alas there is only one and the lucky winner is 

        ...... Wendy L .....

Congratulations Wendy and I think you will be delighted with your prize.

You should have had your email informing you of your win and telling you what to do next to claim it.

Everything was done fairly and the winner was chosen completely randomly by InLinkz.

This is the first time I have ever done something like this I have to thank InLinkz too and I will be using them again.... so please keep popping back to see the next giveaway.

Hugs xx

Christmas Mega Bundle

These are some more cards from the Christmas Mega Bundle from  Paper Creator

There are some really sweet and easy to make cards, complete with matching envelope.

Dress them up any way you want.  They are all 6" square cards with some really cute characters.

On this one I have added in a charm to the top right, and a paper doily behind the image ... along with an odd piece of lace I found in my "Stash"

This pretty pink one had the addition of Diamante swirls from Want2Scrap  and it adds that extra special touch for me.

The ribbon is white satin with a gemstone in the centre to hide the knot.

Add in some glitter and use the sentiments that are with the image and make your card.

For this one I have added in some Diamante snowflakes and a  royal blue organza ribbon.

Pretty cards, easy to do and lovely designs ... what more could you want ??

Still not entered your name for the Enveloplus Board ???

 Here is the link 

Hugs xx

What a mess...

Lounge

It's three weeks to go to Christmas and this is the state of my lounge .....

Everything is covered in plastic sheeting and it all looks a mess .... but when it is finished it will look lovely.

We have a through lounge and this the sitting area with the bay window overlooking the avenue.

I have the idea to add stripes to the walls using varnish and I will show you the result once we are straight again.

Dining Room

This is the dining area and this is where I will be adding the tree.

The piece in the middle was once a fire  place.

But rather than go to the upheaval of removing it,  we decided to make it into a feature in the room.

I drew out on some paper what I wanted,  and my very talented "Film Crew" made it for me.

But in all honesty he is a builder so this was an easy job for him and the effect is very good.

We added glass shelves to it on each of the wooden frames and this is where I add my pretty ornaments.

There is a light in the top to highlight the objects... and again I will add photos once it is back to normal.... with my tree in the bottom corner.

Hopefully by the weekend it will all be finished and then I will be ready for Christmas .... well nearly !!

The link for the Enveloplus board is still on until Saturday  here  it is

Hugs xx