A few things

Hi blogland. I know I've been a bit quiet of late, I've had so much going on here, my head has been all over the place. In the middle of organising my hubbys 60th and my mums 65th birthday party, my best friend from school lost a short battle with cancer and sadly passed away (just a few days after losing my great Uncle). It totally knocked the stuffing out of me as we were told she had 6-12 months which would be prolonged with chemo, but she passed away only 10 weeks after diagnosis. She was my age, 45. It hit me so hard, and of course because of my M.E it hit me physically as well as mentally. It's taken me quite some time to get over it. Then it was Christmas and it hit me all over again, not only because of Liz but also it's my first Christmas without my Grandad and my great Uncle John as well. I miss my Grandad so much, he was a massive part of my life. When I went for my usual Christmas eve visit to my Grandma she said to me "I've only to cook for me and Michael (my Uncle) this year, when it's usually the 4 of us, and it's so hard. I know I shouldn't be, but I'm really sad" Well of course her saying that got me upset too :'(
As usual I cooked the big dinner for me, hubby, my mum and her partner. We managed to get through it without any tears, I'm sure New Years Eve will be the time when we all have a cry. It's been a real tough year and if it wasn't for my crafting I'm sure I would have suffered a lot more, it really is better than any medicine.
So talking of my crafting, here are a few things I've been making:

I made these for the launch of Nikky's new Polka Doodles CD Cherry Blossom Lane which was on Create and Craft. It's a really lovely CD with lots of bunny images for all occasions, and some for the men as well which is brill! The images are water coloured with my Letraset AquaMarkers.

This was a bare basics frame which I have decorated with papers and embellishments from Studio 12's Picknix collection CD 1 from Polka Doodles. I have distressed the items with Tim Holtz distress inks.The photo is of my Grandma and Grandad taken in the late 40's in Skegness which was their fave holiday place. I will be giving this to my Grandma tomorrow.

I made some homemade cookies for my neighbours to say thanks for being the best neighbours anyone could wish for. So I decided I need to make some tags to attach to the packages. Then seeing as I loved doing them so much I then made some door hangers to use on New Years Eve so no-one disturbs my fur babies in the bedroom. Everything I have used comes from the fabulous Studio 12's Picknix collection CD 2 Gingerbread twist from Polka Doodles. Again I have distressed everything with a Tim Holtz distress ink.
I then decided that I needed to decorate some paper bags to put the cookies in.

I adore this CD, I wish I'd bought it before I did all my Christmas cards this year, as I would have done everyone of them with this CD!Well I think that's enough for now, I'm sure you'll be nodding off at such a long post! lol

I wish each and everyone of you a very healthy and happy new year. I'm sure 2013 is going to be amazing.