It's been a while........

 It's been a while since I blogged, but life has been a little hectic.  First of course there was the lead up to Christmas, which I hope you all enjoyed.  Our lead up was fine and we had lots of fun, including some funny moments one of which was when some Christmassy lingerie, I ordered as a treat for myself, arrived.  I showed it to DH who made all the right sort of noises, but neither of us were prepared for Charlie saying, in as raunchy voice as an 8 yr old can muster, "Santa Baby".  Shock was overcome with mirth and his cute innocent face sealed the moment.  I think he's going to be a 'boob' man when he grows up!
Life was ticking over nicely, we celebrated our Christmas meal number one with my folks the weekend before Christmas, at which time I CAME OUT! NO not that sort of 'CAME OUT' the sort when I finally let my family know I'd been secretly learning to play the cornet.  I gathered all of my best skills of 6 weeks lessons and managed my rendition of Good King Wenceslas.  It was hit and particularly shocked DH who thought it was Charlie and my father said it was me.  Martin replied "No Zoë might get a note out of it, but not a tune!"  He was impressed, but also wanted to know if I had any other secrets I needed to tell him!!!
We almost made Christmas and my father went to hospital for what we thought was a routine test, but they weren't happy with the results and wouldn't let him come home and so he spent 10 days in hospital.  It made life a little more varied than we had anticipated for Christmas.  Once home he called to talk to Olivia and Charlie to reassure them that he was OK.  Charlie spoke to him first and congratulated him on living through it! Thank fully he made it home for New Year's Eve and so we shared a meal with my folks and travelled home to see in the new year with tea and cake watching the London fireworks.  Not the most exciting, but relaxing and fun!
Stampin' Up! is running fast and furious now onto 2012's wonderful new offerings.  There's the all new, first ever Spring Mini Catalogue which is full of products you won't want to miss, including the gorgeous necklace pictured above.  As a demonstrator I was lucky enough to get my hands on the chain, charm and bauble all before Christmas and so I decorated the charm with the Pines and Poinsettias stamp set and a little bit of bling.  You can decorate your insert on both sides to have two designs or even add a photo.  You can then of course make inserts for different times of the year or whatever takes your fancy.  All the individual pieces come in chocolate chip gift boxes so they make beautiful gifts for crafters and non-crafters alike.  

In addition to the charms and baubles there are collections of crown and key charms that come with their own jump rings and lobster clips so that you can either add them to your pendants or charm bracelets or to cards and projects.  They'll be perfect for 'key to my heart', diamond jubliee, and 18th and 21st birthday projects. 

If you'd like a copy of the mini please do contact me.

That's me for now, will be back to all systems go very soon.

Hugs Zx

Independent Stampin' Up! demonstrator