Allotment Lady

I know - I have neglected posting on here - but I really have been busy in the run up to Christmas - and ‘life’ just has to take priority over spending hours on the computer doesn’t it?

Here are a few photos of one of the projects I had been working on for months and months - and it took so many hours of time.

It has all be made by me - from the front and back covers, to the actual assembling and making of the book.  Here are just a few samples of some of the pages.  I made it for Luke’s Japanese grandparents

Just snap shots over the year - starting with out trip to the shops early last year to buy him a money box - which he is filling up.

As I don’t speak Japanese - no words were needed really.   The envelope has some of his ‘drawings’ in it.  The papers I stamped.

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Daddy and Luke with the quail - just a few days old

Here he is exploring a fallen tree trunk.

Summer fun

At the zoo

Playing with finger puppets with me.

Another drawing and surprise tags.  These sides have ’sayings’ on them relating to the photos on the reverse

There are lots more pages - you’ll get bored if I show you them all.

My son kindly phoned me the day after they had received the parcel to tell me that they were really excited and were showing them the book over the webcam the previous evening.

It made all the hard work worth while to know that.   I wish I had made myself one now!

Perhaps I will this year.

As we are nearing the end of 2008 I thought I would wish you a pleasant and successful final phase with great dreams for 2009.

My thanks to all those who have sent me emails this past year……..

I must send my thanks to whoever sent me the one about rat poo in the glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet towel with every envelope that needs sealing. Also, I now have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason.

I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown); who is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time.

I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program….

Or from the senior bank clerk in Nigeria who wants me to split $7 million with me for pretending to be a long lost relative of a customer who died intestate.

I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St. Theresa’s novena has granted my every wish.

I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.

Thanks to you, I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward  the e-mail to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.

Because of your concern I no longer drink Coca-Cola because it can remove toilet stains.

I no longer can buy petrol without taking a friend along to watch the car so a serial killer won’t crawl in my back seat when I’m filling up.

I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with an aftershave sample and rob me.

I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica , Uganda , Singapore and Uzbekistan .

Thanks to you, I can’t use anyone’s toilet but mine because a big brown African spider is lurking under the seat to cause me instant death when it bites my bum.

And thanks to your great advice, I can’t even pick up the £1 coin I found dropped in the car park because it probably was placed there by a sex molester waiting underneath my car to grab my leg.

If you don’t send this link to at least 144,000 people in the next 70 minutes, a large pigeon with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00pm this afternoon and the fleas from 12 camels will infest your back, causing you to grow a hairy hump.

I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor’s ex-mother-in-law’s second husband’s cousin’s beautician’s relative once removed.

By the way….a South American scientist after a lengthy study has discovered that people with low IQ who have infrequent sexual activity always read their e-mails with their hand on the mouse.

Don’t bother taking it off now, it’s too late!

So wishing you all a Happy and Worry Free New Year.

(And  thank you to the anonymous author of this message - it made me laugh out loud)

I am so busy, baking and making etc that I just haven’t had the time to post much on here.

En-route to my studio I took a photo of the girls - grabbing a rare glimpse of the sunshine.  It didn’t last long - and is raining again!

Well I got the tree ‘dressed’ before Patrick got up - all except the lights - as he hadn’t found those!

I don’t do ‘themes’ each year or the latest colours end designs.

My tree is one of memories of Christmasses past.  I always have a ‘real’ tree.

There are six of these little paper mache painted baubles - years old.

A little snowman in ‘West Ham’ football colours someone knitted.

Six surviving hand painted Russian Glass baubles

And some purple glass hand painted baubles too - no two are identical - which I love - although they are of the same design

A few remaining painted wooden ornaments - Snowman has lost his nose - but I can’t bear to throw him away.

I have three little fir cone fairies

A wooden church minus it’s clock face.

The only surviving member of the band - minus his right arm and left leg!

Goodness knows how old this bell is - the sticky squares have stayed stuck.

I have an ancient plastic bell which works with a rabbit’s head on it - that belonged to my mother in law.

I have lots of other baubles collected over the years - but nothing new.

But that’s what makes my Christmas - getting out all the old familiar things - and reminiscing over Christmas past.

It was still not daylight when I had finished.

It’s been ‘tweaked’ a bit since I took these photos - and lights and have been added.

Jolly Jingling Santas have been hung on all the door handles.

Bows have been put on all the lights and the curtain swags.

Cards are stuck along the dado rails

Ah - this is my sort of Christmas.

Just need to do some last minute cooking.  Wrap some presents.  Finishing making presents and cards.

So best not sit here typing any more had I.