Christmas 2012

Hello again and I really hope that you all had a fabulous Christmas? What a wonderful Christmas Day we enjoyed. It was a real bonus this year my parents and both our children with their partners were with us. I do know that in years to come this is not going to be possible. As our family grows up Christmas Day does evolve. I think this is a very natural process and I will never be a person who desperately clings to the past. My motto in life is to always live for the day. Every Christmas is unique and every Christmas past, present and in the future will be treasured. We number 8 for our direct family and their partners so this is the perfect number for my dining room table. Billy did try to get a place as I set up the table but he has his own green chair so he was persuaded onto that instead.

What a funny boy he is.....

My crackers well well received and the table looked very festive for our Christmas lunch. I must confess it is the only roast I cook all year but I do enjoy it. My son said he could have eaten a whole plate of roast parsnips.

We gave and received some wonderful presents. My family are so very clever at choosing the best gifts for me.

We flamed the pudding, played cards, laughed a lot and watched the wonderful new Snowman and Snowdog again (we watched it Christmas Eve too). O my this is another classic and I really hope they produce merchandise from it. It will be on my Christmas watching list from now on...it was magical. In the evening we had a buffet tea with all the trimmings. One of my children's favourites is cheese and bacon parcels so of course there were plenty of these. We also had a chocolate Yule Log and lit the candles on it and sang "We Wish you a Merry Christmas".

A really magical day was had by all. Another very treasured Christmas for me and I look forward to all the count down again in 2013. It really is my very favourite time of the year.
So what were my gifts......obviously I can't share them all as I would be here til next Christmas but these are some....

Inside the big snowman paper box was indeed my Big Shot die cutter, I am going to have such fun with this. I was also bought my first dies and some more Martha Stewart punches.

I love this retro Portmerion Kellogg's mug, very me.



I also got these great Harrods tea caddies containing my favourite blends.

My daughter and her Hb bought me, amongst other unique gifts this brilliant  Kath Wohlfahrt  decoration which clips to the branches of my tree. He came back from their recent trips to Bruges. He is a frosty candle with cute dangly legs. So cute.

 and of course pigs had to feature somewhere. This great tin came with lots of crafty goodies inside too.
My son was very clever and managed to buy me the correct Estee Lauder face cream set that I use as well as other well chosen gifts. When I showed my surprise that he bought the correct one his answer was that he used to sneak in and use it when he was at home and needed some moisturiser .......LOL!
What a very lucky girl I was.

So today's card challenge is my last Christmas card for 2012. I am pleased I started working on my cards from September as I was able to get many more made this year.
Although I do really like the contemporary colours I used for some of my cards I will admit that I still love traditional Christmas colours the best. Give me golds, reds and greens any day ;0) I am also using one of my favourite Christmas stamps from Lili of the Valley called Angel with oval bauble.

I made lots of variations of this card this year. This one I sold on Etsy some time ago but it was one of my favourites.
I coloured the image with my Promarker pens and highlighted with Prismacolor pencils. The poinsettia die cut is a Marianne and the snowflake by Memory Box. Just think I will be able to die cut my own shapes now using my Big Shot. I hand punched the small gold snowflake. There is plenty of shine here from using gold card and gold ribbon at the side of the image. The sentiment is by Whimsy Stamps.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Crafting for all season's red green and sparkle
Charizma cards #51 anything goes
Pretty little ribbons #17 It's Christmas
Visible Image Christmas
Card Crafter's Circle #55 anything goes
Natalie and Amy Winter Wishes
Papercrafting Journey anything goes
A and T Emerald Faeries #38 Christmas
Joanna Sheen with love at Christmas
Simon Says Stamp anything goes

Please also take a trip to the Ribbon girls blog as they have had an amazing giveaway over Christmas. They also have an amazing online store here


To see the old year out and welcome in 2013 I am also having a Winter/end of the year Sale in my Etsy shop where you can get a massive 25% off everything there. You could stock up on cards for next Christmas as there are still some left here or even start thinking about birthdays and celebrations for the new year. Just enter the Code WINTER2012 at the checkout and this will be taken off your purchase(s)  (does not apply to shipping costs). You could even treat yourself to one of my bag charms; with 25% off they work out at around £5 instead of the usual cost of £6.75

Thanks for visiting me today and I hope you are all looking forward to seeing in the New Year? Let's hope that the new year brings back some dry weather to the UK as the situation has been quite dire for many over Christmas, some parts of the country are still badly flooded.  We are off to a New Year Ball  on Monday night at our dancing class so it may well be time to get out my Cinderella slippers again ;0) Enjoy the last few days of 2012

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x