Not only Halloween :)

Hiya!

Oh yes, I know Halloween is gone, but..

Over a week before Halloween Dom decided he wants to have carved pumpkin, sooo... he choose one in the shop and ...

My first carved pumpkin :) Hard job!!! And he wasn't happy cause he wanted bat on it... so I carved bat on back of this pumpkin later :)

On Halloween day I baked pumpkin muffins, I used Mary Berry's recipe for carrot cake which you can find here: Mary Berry's Carrot and Walnut Cake, just changed carrot for pumpkin and didn't add walnuts.

Result: very yummy!!!

Meantime Dom was working on Birthday card for his friend Grace.

He's going for her Birthday party this Saturday.

He's also waiting for his school trip to Druridge Bay next week.

That's all for now :)

Bit busy Tobisia :)

Bad me... again didn't wrote much here for a bit!

Whole month gone!

So.... What happened since my last writing?

Here you go:

I'm a member of Designing Team for Conie Fong Art & Design, you can find her beautiful digis here: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ConieFongArt.

Some of my creations with her images:

New release from April: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/511461358/digital-stamp-digi-stamp-digistamp-conie?ref=shop_home_active_7

New release from May: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/528119929/digital-stamp-digi-stamp-digistamp-conie?ref=shop_home_active_5

Card I made for my Mum's birthday and also as my inspiration/challenge for May at Conie's FB group. I used image called: Moonflower Lullaby: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/289136333/digital-stamp-digi-stamp-digistamp?ref=shop_home_active_40

I decided to create new coupon code for my Etsy shop, so if anyone interested, check my current offer: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TobisiasLilThing?ref=hdr_shop_menu and use 40OFFSALE for 40% off on every purchase.

As my son will be 5 soon (tomorrow) and we decided to organize a little party for him, we were bit busy to find good place, make invitation, buy gifts, make card, bake a cake... lots to do :)

Here card for him:

We have some Lego for him :) I spent lots of time to figured out the best cream for his cake cause I didn't want buttercream (to heavy and sugary for my taste) and I found solution :)

Here my first ever fondant decoration for cake :)

I know my Stegosaurus looks bit funny and possibly is bit too big, but... as my old friend said: Bake big birthday cake!

Hmmm... I think that's all I wanted to write today... 

Till next time friends!

Midterm break

Last week was a little break from school for Dom. I can say that was very interesting time - first time only me, Dom and Tula (Daddy was working).

We had little bit of chocolate fudge I made around weekend

As inspiration for this fudge I had recipe found through pinterest: http://theprettybee.com/2015/11/3-ingredient-dairy-free-fudge.html.

My version contained: 550 g dark chocolate, 1 can of coconut milk and around 3 tbsp of icing sugar :)

We had fun making cookies from Dr Oetker book from 1930.

Dom helped me with finishing this nice card - details you can find here: http://tobicards.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/february-challenge-at-conie-fong-art-fb.html

He also had his time with card making - I received my crafting mag with stepper cards kit as free gift and Dom decided he wants to use it :) He made 4 nice stepper cards with minimum of my help.

Beautiful work isn't it?

We also read a lot and Dom painted 3 new 'masterpieces', we bought some new books and colouring books and spent a little bit of time in Whitley Bay where we had a stop for drink and cake :). We had fun watching Tula running wild in the garden, making new chewing toy for her and trying to explain her that Dom's sleepers are not for chewing (no luck).

Overall - very nice time together :)

December, December...

Winter started... I should say 'raining season' started :)

Luckily for us not everyday is cold and wet, just bit of drizzling from time to time, some chilly mornings... But sometimes we have chance for day like this:

Or sky like this:

We can still enjoy nice walks during weekend :)

From other life fronts... I'm reading book 5 of Dark Tower by Stephen King.

Colouring new digi images

Making new cards

Dom is creating new masterpieces :)

And we all are waiting for new member of our little family - Tula :)

She's a chipin and Dom recognize her every time we see her with no problems :)

That's all for today friends :)

Sneaky Santa game

Every year in our Etsy team we are playing Sneaky Santa game...

This year was challenging for me, cause my Sneaky partner did no wish list.

I had to play around - use everything I knew about her to find/made perfect gifts for her.

So...

Leda is bookworm from Sicily, Italy who making beautiful felt accessories and bookmarks. She likes cards, earrings and definitely handmade stuff. I like illustrations she sharing on her FB.

I thought... book! But which one? She has so many and I have no idea which she still not have on her shelf... That was lots of thinking :) Result:

You can see movie made on this book in cinemas now!

One of my first attempts with copper - red semi-precious beads inside cages.

Pendant with stone found by myself on local beach during Summer.

Images from Ching's shop: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/gjzcck?ref=l2-shopheader-name, I coloured for Leda :) I thought she can like them :)

Little Christmas card with stamp from Tiddly Inks.

Leda received her parcel today and looks like she likes her gifts, so I can show you what I found/made for her :)

What do you think about my gifts? Do you like them?

Life with bathroom re-do :)

We decided that is time to give our bathroom some make-over. After living in our home 7 years we were sick of wallpaper there. Now our bathroom is almost done :) New tiles, spotlights, bath etc. and no more pink :).

I'm laughing that I changed myself into 'rainbow catcher' - few days in row we could admire rainbows :)

Dom spotted this beauty when we were on a walk :)

Other day we were in mood for Chinese and I took my bamboo steamer out of box and made 'money bags' :) Hmmm yummy - Dom fell in love with sticky plum sauce :).

He was also in crafty mood one day - result above :)

I made this card for his Daddy yesterday - today is his birthday :)

And finally found a time to start book 2 of Dark Tower by Stephen King.

Fingers crossed our bathroom will be done today :) Cannot wait :)

The Heritage Card Box

Today I want you to meet people from The Heritage Card Box - little shop on etsy.com specialized in greeting cards.

Beautiful shop banner don't you think?

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TheHeritageCardBox

But my dear friends, we need to back to the point :) The Heritage Card Box is family thing, really.

So...

Meet: Kinslea, Jalen, Judith and Oma :)

Kinslea is shop owner and creator, Jalen is her older brother who dealing with technical side of shop, Judith - Kinslea and Jalen Mum - creator and last, but definitely not least - Oma - Kinslea's Grandma and cards' creator from whom all these story began.

That's right and you can read about it here: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TheHeritageCardBox?ref=profile_shopname#about

Family lives in Youngsville, North Carolina, USA.

photo found through Google search :)

Picturesque little town.

I decided to ask Kinslea few questions.

How old you were when your Oma start to teach you card making?

A. Oma, some of my cousins, and I started this as a creative project to work on together when we went to her house every other Monday afternoon. I would say we started making cards when I was about 9 years old.

Oma's craft room

One of cards sets you can find in Kinslea shop: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/276686832/the-special-occasions-pack-1-baby-boy-1?ref=shop_home_active_6

Tell us bit more about your family - are all your siblings 'artistic souls' ?

A. My dad is definitely very artistic. My brother also got those artistic genes as well. He is self-employed as a website designer (you can visit his website at http://dominion-designs.com/). My other three brothers are pretty artistic on varying degrees. I think overall most of my family is artistic and creative.

Card made by Judith 

Card made by Kinslea 

Card made by Oma 

What do you like about your hometown?

A. What I like the most about my hometown is that it is fairly small and quiet. You feel like you are out in the country, yet you aren't.

Photo taken and copyrighted by Don Solomon Photography.

Autumn in North Carolina - beautiful photo - if you want to see more pics from area please check: http://www.donsolomonphotography.com/

You, your Mam and your Oma all enjoy cooking - what each of you love to cook?

A. My Oma is the best cook I ever met! Opa (my grandfather) says he has never tasted any of her cooking that he does not like. I have to agree with him. She is definitely a gourmet cook!!! My mom is also a very good cook, and is always finding awesome recipes. I still have a lot to learn, but I love experimenting with different recipes. My mom and I enjoy finding healthy recipes on Pinterest to make for our family. (You can view my profile here:  pinterest.com/kraed10/. I have a few boards with a collection of recipes).

Your family team loves to read - what kind of books do you read?

A. Oma, Mom, and I are all Christians, and the book we love the best is the Bible. Second to that, I enjoy reading the Lamplighter Collection ( a collection of old books that have been republished) and the authors Douglas Bond, John J. Horn, Sarah Maxwell, and others. My siblings and I were taught by my Mom and Dad at an early age to read, and all of us love reading!!!

Do you have any extra projects for Christmas?

A. I am not sure if I'm going to be doing anything specifically for Christmas yet, right now I'm focusing on making cards for a national event at the end of October that I'm going to be a vendor at. After that I am going to be working on setting up more listing and packs in my shop, and then I may offer Christmas cards. I may even run a sale, so stay tuned for that!!!

Definitely we stay tuned for that :)

Crafting and family time

Long break with writing again... really bad bad me :)

Last week was very fast, just started and finished in blink of eye.

I was busy making bracelet replacement and that lead back to playing with seed beads again - good thing :). Why? I decided to make another wrapping seed beads bracelet, but in half way I had some funny thought: 'Why not make wire weaved pendant with seed beads and put it on seed beads necklace?'. Result of this thinking? Check below :)

After that I made two more pendants with seed beads :)

Meantime Dom was playing with paints - I gave him watercolour paper, so I'll use his masterpiece as background for cards for his Nanas soon :)

Also catch time to make card for card swap in my FB group - theme: Friendship.

I love Marina Fedotova ilustrations and stamps :) Shame I have just few of them, really want to have more - reason: they are really cute :)

Yesterday had bit of time for colouring, so did this cutie for new Christmas card.

Late afternoon yesterday we decided to have active family time and we went outside to play with Dom's new kite. He received owl kite as a gift from one of our neighbours :)

Beautiful flying :)

Bit dark pic, but was very cloudy and also already after 6pm :)

Our owl is catching mouse on this pic :)

We were outside bit over an hour and even not realized that until we back home - we had great fun :) Dom loves his kite and definitely we will play with it again very soon :)

Mr King, digi stamps and bit of cooking

Looks like I have a bit to write about.

Mr King? Yeah :) Stephen King - I was reading his books ages ago when was teen :) and always that were horror/thriller things... Didn't realized he also wrote some nice fantasy... didn't till few days ago when I pick up book from library shelf and shock! no horror, but proper fantasy with dragon (in some point :) magician (very bad boy) and princes and king etc.

Very good book :) Now I'll be tracing 'Dark Tower' serie - I heard is really good, so want to check it :)

Meantime I became member of very nice cardmaking group on FB called Kit and Clowder. The girls helping there with colouring skills, encourage each other, organize giveaways and competitions and have lots of other fun activities and lots of chitchats :)

Thanks to group I find out lots of stamp companies I never heard before - honestly had no idea that so many people creating stamps - both traditional and digi.

Last weekend I decided to join some activities and thanks to that I have new stamp in my collection - digi stamp from Saga Stamps called From Me to You, but this is not all, girls start new competition - do project including this stamp, upload to team album to have a chance to win 2 more stamps :) I couldn't resist :) Here my cards:

I think I printed images bit too big, but cards turned out nicely :)

We had very 'foody' last weekend I can say :) Saturday with Moroccan twist and Indian Sunday - even Dom ate some of it :)

Beef tangine with dried apricots ( link to recipe in one of previous posts) served with pearl barley this time.

Fast Chicken Curry served with rice and naan bread.

That's all for today's writing, cause I'm starting to feel hungry only by watching food pics ;)