Hey everyone,

Just popping on to say hi. I hope everyone had a really wonderful Christmas. I woke up at 6 o’clock, forced myself to go back to sleep then woke up again at 7.00 and tried to make Craig get up then. He managed to get me to stay in bed until 7.45 before I exploded with excitement and ran downstairs under the slight over exaggeration that ‘baby was hungry and needed me to eat something’! :oD heehee!

We opened our presents first then made phone calls to family. My niece Abbi proclaimed that it ‘was the best Christmas ever’ as we could hear her randomly hitting the keys on the Disney Princess keyboard we bought her. My sister then had a few muttering words for me! LOL. My nephew Josh loved his Mister Potato Head, and chatted away on the phone excitedly as he told me about the Talking Woody that Santa brought him. It seemed everyone must have been good this year.

We spent the day with Jer, Sar and the kids: watching elf, eating lots of food (including pixiestix that Sarah brought back from the USA) and adoring Randolph’s American accent. Rand was so excited to bring us two chocolate coins as presents – he had held them the whole way over here, refusing to let them go, and so by the time he got here, they were completely melted and squishy. He even played with Miya, proclaiming that Miya thinks that he is lots of fun and likes playing with him! Sweet!

Later in the evening we had a video chat with the Northern Ireland gang (who are currently suffering with very chilly weather of minus 13degrees.) I definitely miss the big get-together at my parents’ house on Christmas evening: full of fun, laughter and masses of food {nom} but with the wonders of modern technology we were at least able to join in for a little while.

Today of course was a Pyjama day: banana pancakes, leftover Xmas dinner, Xbox, movies and I even got to do a little crafting. Because it was so easily located (rather than in boxes galore) I pulled out the sewing machine and played with some felt and fabric. I made a little gift for a friend – here’s a sneaky peeky for now until I can do a big reveal!

So, in case you havent guessed it – my DSLR camera has ran out of battery and the charging cables are burried deep within a box *somewhere*! I can’t believe I was so stoopid to pack them instead of keeping them to hand. So its iPhone photos for a few days. I took a few around to house to share with y’all.

Our Christmas tree, still with the scattered aray of pressies underneath and all around. Usually these don’t get cleared away for another few days at least.

I found this little guy at Wilkinson’s, reduced to £1.00. He’s supposed to be a Christmas tree decoration, but he has pride of place on our mantle piece just now because I think he’s so darn cute!

I was so thrilled to get a dozen little wooden birdies from Craig, who had obviously seen me drooling over them at the Paper Artsy stand at the NEC. I think i’m going to decorate them with paper and make a mobile/ banner for the Nursery.

I have a secret crush on Nigella! She is so delightfully awesome, and makes me want to jump into the TV screen every time her show is on. Now I too can be a Domestic goddess now that I have a book full of Nigella’s tip, tricks and recipes galore! (Thanks Mummy O)

Look what else I got!! I have been wanting the first version of this book ever since it came out, but never got round to buying it. A brief leaf through the pages made me shiver with excitement! I haven’t got round to reading it cover to cover yet, but this is definitely on my ‘to-do’ list for the next few days.

And tomorrow : another adventure! We are off to Ikea to check out the sale and to buy some furniture for the craft room so I can start unpacking some of my boxes, and can start getting craft again. Oh i’ve missed my little craft haven! But, it will be sooooo worth the wait.

Have fun everyone, and don’t forget that you can leave a comment to win a Scrapbook Trends For the Home Inspiration book. I’ll pick the winner soon.

xox