Christmas chocolate

I wanted to make something for Tabitha to give to her classmates this year for Christmas. It had to be something easy, as I had to make 21 of them and as we all know, time is at a premium at this time of year. I found some Chocolate Santa lollies, and decided to make some 'envelopes' to put them in. This is how they turned out.

I used Rich Razzleberry ink on the neutral cardstock, and white craft ink on the razzleberry cardstock. I used the Scandanavian Season stamp set, and stamped over the cardstock, then foldered it into an envelope. I secured the envelope with some silver elastic cord, and added a stamped tag so everyone gets a named present.

I hope they like them.

In other news, our family has been hit with some very devastating news, which is going to make the coming months very hard. I may not be blogging much, as my energies will be diverted to concentrating on helping people who need my support. Difficult times.

Play time...

...play as in the nativity kind. This year, the girls nativity play was called 'The Stable Boy'. Tabitha's class were donkeys this year, and Ellie's class were angels. Last year, Tabitha developed her sickness after 1 performance (there were 3 and we had tickets for the third), and we didn't get to see her on stage, although her LSA did tell us she was none too impressed. This year we got tickets for the first performance, which was today. We were a little apprehensive about how Tabitha would be, on the stage, in front of an audience, who clapped, but there was no need to worry. Tabitha was fantastic! She actually took part in the play (with her LSA operating her arms!!), with a great big smile on her face. She is so loving this new year group and is joining in so well with them all. Here are some pictures of her on stage, sorry they aren't very clear, but no flash photography was allowed.
Then the angels came on, and Ellie was there, the brightest star of course, with a huge smile on her face all the way through the performance. She was born for the stage that one.

Tonight, we are very proud of our 2 girls. :-D

Card request

A very old friend of mine asked me if I could make a card for a very good friend of her's who is turning 50. I used this request as an excuse to buy in a few more supplies, namely patterned papers that I have coveted for a while, and this is what I made.It uses the Elegant Soiree papers, and stamps from the Occasional Greetings and Simply Said sets, with some basic grey taffeta ribbon. I used the scallop square punch to punch out 8 shapes, then used the teabag folding technique to create the rosette.

Inside the card, I added this.

I used my neglected craft robo to cut out the Very Vanilla cardstock, and cut out the 50. Then I rounded 2 of the corners, and stamped over them with one of the stamps from the Tiny Tags set.

All in all, I like it. I just hope my friend (and her friend) do!

Computing Progress

Tabitha has shown some wonderful interest and ability with the computer. She has been using a two-switch scanning system for a while now, and her LSA at school has been working on developing her mouse control. She uses a single button mouse at school, and they have sent it home for us to see how she's doing on our own PC. I plugged it in tonight, and this is what she did.

I think this is fantastic news for her. She can fully explore and use a computer when she masters this skill, and it's going to open so many opportunities for her. I am so impressed with how well she is progressing this year. Mind you, she is being a nightmare while I am on here, so some things don't seem to change!!

Christmas Preparations

I have been being a naughty crafter. I've been buying things, and hoarding them. That's not the plan!!!! When you buy, you must use! Last night, I got everything ready so I could sit in the lounge with my hubby, watching I'm A Celeb, and crafting at the same time. Imagine my disappointment when I'm A Celeb was cancelled for football. Grr. Still, everything was set up, and I got on with the job in hand, which was making Christmas tree decorations. I decided to make them double sided, as these things never hang the right way when you need them to, and here they are.

They are in Rich Razzleberry (which is my favourite colour at the minute) and use the Tiny Tags and Scandinavian Season stamp sets. I sprayed the Razzleberry cardstock with a glitter varnish before I punched out the Scalloped Circles, just for an extra bit of interest. I punched holes with the Crop-a-dile and threaded through the silver elastic cord. I'm really pleased with them and will be making more. By the way, they have chocolates between the 2 halves ;-)

In other news, we seem to not be making much headway with getting Tabitha to understand the significance of her glasses. Some days she'll leave them on fine, others she just throws them. She has 2 pairs, so that if one gets broken, she still has a pair to use......in theory anyway. Earlier this week, I discovered her usual pair were a little twisted, so I have been using her spare pair until I can get her into the Opticians to get them fixed. I put her spare pair on this morning, strapped her into the car, and drove to school. When we arrived, this is what she had done.

I have no idea how, but they are totally trashed. So, after school today, but the Opticians we go. At this rate, I'm beginning to think that laser eye surgery might be the cheapest option for Tabitha's eye sight!

November Madness

Every year, a strange fever comes over us Somerset folk. November comes around, and after we all go through the well known tradition of Bonfire Night and Fireworks, we start Carnival season. Every year, this seems to get bigger and brighter. There are a large number of carnival clubs around the county, and each year they complete to win the prize for the best float in the carnival. The carnival moves around from town to town on a succession of nights, and last night was Glastonburys turn. This is the one that Ellie and I usually go to see, as my sister lives close to the start of the parade route, and it means we can get a really good view without having to queue up and wait for ages. Next year, the plan will change as my sister is planning on moving house, but for this year, we managed to follow the usual routine.

Unfortunately, Tabitha just couldn't cope with all the noise, and all the people, so this event is yet another that involves us having to split the family in half, Ellie and I going to the carnival, and Chris staying home with Tabitha. I do hope that one day things will be different.

I took a video of the most spectacular float but I can't get it to load on here. It was produced by the Gremlins Carnival Club, who seem to have fantastic ideas and win the best float category in most of the carnivals. It is truely amazing to see the amount of work and planning that goes in to producing something like this.

However, I have to say, there must be an element of madness involved for everyone who gets involved in the Carnival Season. Right from the amount of man hours that are involved in producing the floats, to the people who populate the floats and the choreography that goes on with them, right down to the people who stand, late into the night on the side of the roads, in November, come rain or snow to watch the displays. We are all a little bit mad in Somerset.

A new toy

Tabitha has been playing around on my iPhone for a while now. She can operate it really well, navigating the screens, looking for her favourite apps, and opening them. Until recently though, she couldn't operate the home button, as it was too hard for her fingers to press. She can now do it without a problem.

A while ago, Chris go himself an iPad. Tabitha has remained totally in the dark about this new device, until two night ago, when Chris and Ellie wanted to watch something on TV and they wanted her to be quiet. Chris got out the iPad and showed it to her and loaded her favourite app onto it. This is the result. Pretty impressive I think :-)

The only problem now is that Tabitha now knows what this device is, and so she demands to play on it all the time! Poor Daddy has lost his iPad.