Long time no blog

Happy New Year everyone and lang may yer lum reek! (A good luck wish in Scotland).  I don't make New Year Resolutions as a rule but as I sit here and type this blog I am resolving to keep it more up to date than of late. I don't know where the year has gone.  My excuse is I have been too busy crafting to blog. (LOL)

Christmas is NOT my favourite time of the year (oh dear, did I just admit that publicly). I find that from mid November time just snowballs (pardon the pun), too many chores to be done, shopping for presents, food etc and I feel like curling up into a ball and hiding from the world. Bah Humbug!

Now that it is past I can come out from my hibernation and face the world again. The weather has been so mild and relatively dry here in my neck of the woods, compared to some poor folks who got it bad again.

We did have some local storm damage to the sea wall at Lossiemouth and pictures of the sea at its highest were truly scary.

the snug

I did enjoy New Year however!! We went away with a group of close friends to a beautiful old house on the west coast at Gairloch for a few days to see the New Year in.  It was tremendous and the house could have been built for us. What a time we had. We ate like Kings, drank too much, walked some gorgeous beaches and had a Ceilidh.  Some neighbours, who we had never met before, 'first footed' us. The house even had its own 'snug' bar with a log burning stove which we stocked amply - needless to say we spent a lot of time in there.

Charleston House

Sunset over one of the beaches

I also went Geocaching for the first time. My friend Christine is into this big time and will use any excuse to cache. For the uninitiated geocaching is a world wide treasure hunt, using map references and a gps system to find little, or as the case may be not so little, treasures which someone else has hidden. Great fun and gets you out and about and to some pretty remote spots. The treasure is never of any value, just a few nick knacks in a waterproof container. You log your find in the notebook that comes with the box, and then on the website. A stout pair of boots is                                                                          essential!!

The excitement of the find! ' Calm down ladies it's only a tupperware box! Right where's the next one on the list'. You don't have to be mad to do this, but it helps.

for a wedding

And finally some of the crafty stuff I managed to fit in.

three kings

 I bought the Molly Blooms Christmas Carnival Magazine for £7.99 (fantastic value as there were a load of stamps included), and I made several cards from the contents. (Too many to show)

One of my own design

For a special octogenarian

Pacman card for an ardent gamer

Thanks to Kate @ Papercrafts I made this festive After Eights dispenser box which made its way westwards for New Year's Day Dinner, and now sadly lies empty......maybe it's just as well as the diet started today!

Happy Crafting folks... untill the next time... haste ye back!