A Valentine from Joy and blog awards

This is the wonderful card which I received from the lovely and talented Joy though a Valentine swap organised by Anita in the Hero Arts Flickr group. I love Joy's gorgeous design and the beautiful colours she has used.


Her colouring is gorgeous and I love the sprinkling of pearls. Joy, thanks again for this beauty and for all the lovely goodies you sent along with it. Unfortunately the Valentine which I sent to Amy seems to have gone astray so I’ll be sending another card to her. I won’t post my first card here just yet in case it eventually turns up.


A little while ago I was delighted to be given blog awards by two very kind and talented ladies - Dawn and Rosemary.

This is the award from Dawn



To accept this award I need to do a few things:

1. Thank the person who gave it. Thank you so much Dawn for the award and lovely compliment!

2. Copy the award and put it on your blog.

3. List three things which you love about yourself (this is the hard bit!). I hope these will do!

a) I love that I’m lucky to have wonderful family and friends.
b) I love that I feel life has been kind to me and that I’m a very happy person.
c) I love that I’m always ready for a good laugh.

4. Post a picture that you love.

My favourite photos are of my kids and hubby but I’m not sure that they would want to be on my blog. So here’s a photo of the hairy guy in my life – Toby. This is from last summer when we dropped down to Kilkenny (love that city) for the day. Toby loves coming on day trips with us and I took this photo just after we finished a picnic in the grounds of Kilkenny Castle.



5.Pass this award to 5 people--in no particular order

Trinh - She is so creative, kind and is a great and fun friend.
Linda - Another great friend who is talented in many ways and is full of the joys of life.
Sue - A genuinely lovely friend who has the most amazing talent.
Sue - Another very talented lady whose cards I admire very much.
Lin - She’s so talented, kind and thoughtful. Love her style.

Now on to Rosemary's, award. Firstly Rosemary, thank you so much for this award and for your lovely words that went with it.



I have to pass the award on to 5 bloggers and tell you 5 things about me.

Libby – I always love visiting Libby's blog to see her wonderful cards, yummy recipes and her fun postings. She is so funny and I often end up giggling right the way through her posts.
Patricia – I love visiting Patricia’s blog for her fab and fun creations. I’m always amazed by her colouring skills – I need to take a trip to Spain for some lessons.
Maureen – A really lovely and talented lady who is so kind and encouraging.
Deirdre – She is such a talented and sweet lady and has been a great help tipping me off about where to shop for crafty supplies here in Ireland.
Virginia – A really lovely lady with a great sense of humour who has a wonderful blog covering her gorgeous creations, lovely family and yummy food.

Thanks to all you ladies, it's been great getting to know you and see your fab creations:)

So here are five things about me – be prepared for a snoozefest!

1. We have a dog called Toby as you can see above and a goldfish called Bubbles. My son Mark had his name drawn out in a raffle and could choose either a chocolate cake or a goldfish. He loves chocolate cake so much but Bubbles it was!
2. I used to always put brown sauce* on my dinners and bring a bottle of it on holidays. One time for a bet I ate some on chocolate cake – it actually tasted really good! Now I don’t eat it at all.
3. I met my hubby in work.
4. I’ve no head for heights.
5. Years ago I lived in Florida for a year. I can’t believe I actually missed our changeable Irish weather when I was there!

* I had a couple of questions about brown sauce - it's a kind of steak sauce made from malt vinegar, tomatoes, dates, tamarind extract, sweetener and spices.

Phew, sorry for the extra long post today!