Nikky's world…

So I decided it was time to get my house in order. Not our house, I mine MY houses as in my craft space. Got hubby to buy me lots of storage options carefully selected for their beauty and size, usefulness etc, so I forwent (is that even a word?) niceties at Crimbo in aid of my storage mission. So this weekend thats what I’ve spent 2, yes 2, whole days doing. Went to B&Q on Friday to get some MDF to make a larger desk and did a deal with a bloke so it only cost me £4 instead of £15 and then went to have a look in PC World and drool at a Mac. 2 hours came home with one – oops!! Bank Manager won’t be happy!

Now I’d just like to put an end to some filthy rumours before I go on. A lot of you are under some illusion that we designers live in huge mansions just cos we is on the telly and stuff. SO NOT TRUE! I have yet to meet a fellow designer who lives in such a castle. Me, I live in a 2 up 2 down terrace and work from home, so you can only imagine the chaos. If I lived anywhere other than York no doubt I could afford to live somewhere twice the size and this is something I keep trying to convince his nibs about but he’s having none of it, he loves his precious York. Me, I think its vastly overrated unless you’re a tourist. Anyway…

…woke up yest morning full of intentions and by half nine OH had made me have a row with him and I was off to B&Q again to buy me a proper drill/screwdriver. We have rows over power tools because he has the ability to lose/break anything he touches and it drives me insane. And I mean rage.  So off I stomped in the car, came back armed and dangerous with a beast of a machine chuntering about not needing his help I could do it all myself blah blah blah. He was in a right old mood with me for being such a cow, so he left me to struggle until I asked for help, haha. Serves me right. So we drilled and huffed and puffed, unpacked cardboard galore, got it all sorted and all looking pretty. Just wish I was 6ft 6″ tall so I could reach it all now. Today have set up my brand spanking new iMac which I have saved up months and months for – now it’s like frikkin Mission Frikkin Control in here. PC,Mac,TV all on one desk, lol! Need all 3 cant live without any. The worst thing is…yep, you guessed it, all the lovely gorge storage sitting on the wall is hidden by all the technology and I cant get to anything! I think I will seriously have to buy myself one of those little industrial kickstep things so I can hoist my arse up to the top!!!  The positive thing is I can actually get my feet under the desk and sit and look at all the pretties in front of me now, lol!! No, it is soo much better I actually have room to work and craft and I’m sure I will keep it all much tidier now everything sort of has a home. Still going to be looking at some other solutions though, do we ever not, lol??  weird thing is, since I moved my PC screen it now looks huge compared to how it was before, very strange! But I am at least feeling slightly organised and more inclined to create and work now instead of groaning in despair everytime I sit down.

I’m not posting any piccies of my wonderful Mission Control Station yet, needs a tad more work first before a reveal methinks.

Anyway, so we launched the new Love & Cherish CD last week – OMG the response to this CD has been nothing short of phenomenal, you are all totally loving it and at the moment we can’t keep up with orders, its going so well, Create & Craft keep showing extra repeats and thats making even more of you order it as well, we’re about a week behind on orders at the moment so if it’s taking a while I’m soo so sorry, we are trying!

So tomorrow for me it’s helping out with packing and trying to get on with the next CD, I’m determined to work smarter and faster now I have the Mac, just need to figure out how to use it now, it’s about 5 years since I had one and it’s taking some getting used to I can tell you! Right, thats it for today, sorry no piccies, will try and do some soon. ttfn xx

Well, before I start to waffle, I sincerely hope 2010 is THE year for you – whoever you are, whatever you’re doing, whatever your hopes and dreams, I hope they all come true big time. AND mine and ours too! And it has to be said I have lots, LOL!

Acsh, that’s a bit of a fib, my whole perspective on life in the last 10 years has totally changed and I have to say I think it’s for the better. A traumatic experience with the OH having a close shave with his maker in 2001 and all its’ consequences and challenges since have made me realise what was really, truly important in life and everything else, quite honestly, is just trivia in my life!  Yep, I have my moods, of which there are many, but they are usually short-lived these days (OH may say something on that subject tho, haha). But generally in the big scheme of things I am a really happy bunny and totally contented with my lot in life. It doesn’t mean I wouldnt like more, but hey, wherever the cookie crumbles as they say. And the last 3 years we have both been to hell and back, and the return journey, we had season tickets I don’t mind telling you, but I’m a big believer in fate, and, touchwood we are both feeling very positive. I have a fave song which I used to play on the home from work in the car at the end of long, bad days (so, most days then, LOL). It’s by a band called Gash and is called “Don’t let the b**tards get you down”. Like I said, a bit of an anthem for me! But I am ever philosophical in my middle age (OMG did I just say that) and what will be will be. People pop in and out of your life all the time.  Most of them pretty insignificant, some pretty important – take the time to see which is which.  Friends come and go for whatever reason, c’est la vie.  Opportunities come and go and you have to grab hold of those and make the most of them whilst you can. No-one can make your life better, you have to do that yourself. And no amount of money can buy you happiness unless you are truly happy with yourself in the first place. So this Crimbo I decided to right a couple of wrong’s in my life and that’s it, job done. Didn’t quite get the result I hoped for with one of them but, hey, like I said, that’s life.  And I have found this year that what doesn’t break you makes you stronger and I know that no matter what is thrown at me I can cope with it in a jiffy, it really won’t phase me. Other than people popping off this mortal coil that is, and I hope there’s none of that to spoil my party! Very inconsiderate! But you also don’t get anything unless you work really really hard and I have to admit, I think I do work really really hard.  I am rapidly becoming that woman who was welded into her chair, where her skin had begun to absorb the fabric and she had to be cut away!!  My sister really surprised me the other week when she said she couldn’t believe how nonchalent I was about everything (think that’s the right word) but I just take everything in my stride – and  a fairly large stride it is too with my size 8’s!  Talking of which I know you all like the shoe drools so here’s the latest…

ok so it’s bag drools, but hey ho!

God, how I wish I could wear heels, I could seriously collect these shoes, I WANTS them ALL!!!

and lastly, anyone who knows me, knows that these are SOOOO me…

So, shoe drools over, my god these are gorgeous! Have a wonderful New Year everyone – my resolutions are to get some exercise in, work less and blog more!  Right, we’ll see how long that lasts, done the blog…

where is my flexibar…

ttfn xxxx

Wow, has it really been a month since I blogged, I am really slipping! Well, this is a mini post just to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We are very lucky to have lovely customers at Polka Doodles and we’d like to take the opportunity to thank you all for your amazing support in 2009, it’s been a hell of a year!

Kris and I are really excited about 2010 but we appreciate that we would not be doing our dream jobs if it wasn’t for all you lovely people buying the CD’s and keeping us going – believe me, it’s you that keeps me inspired!

We have had snow here thick on the ground for over a week although it does seem to be disappearing now after we had loads of fresh flakes this morning. Would you believe I had to go on a mercy mission at 9pm last night in t-shirt, leggings and Birkenstock flipflops in the snow??!! Well, ok I was in the car, but I did run/skid down the street to get to it!

So have yourselves a lovely lovely Merry little Christmas and I hope Father Christmas brings you all lots of pressies and good health for the coming year! (and I promise to try and blog more, but if you want to catch up with me you can find me on Twitter and Facebook!) …big snowy hugs…. xxx

Snapped this piccy of my bamboo outside all encapsulated in icy crystals…bootiful…

and here is  a piccy of my Crimbo cards this year – 60 all handmade (had problems glueing the pompom ribbon because I made the mistake of stretching it and it kept pinging off!! Of course I then didnt have enough to remake it all so had to do emergency repairs – several times, lol! xx

Pic’s not great, all white on white, the image is the flourish from my Daisy Doodle stamp set which I am totally madly in love with. I wrote Merry Christmas with a Quickie gluepen and then heat embossed with a white flock/puff powder. I do like it if I do say so myself…

Right, I’m off to wrap the last few pressies. Almost forgot to mention it – the next show on Create & Craft is Sunday 10th Jan at 11am, hope to see you there for another new launch – guess who is going to be working hard and staying off the booze all over Christmas and New Year, eh….can still cram the calories down my gullet though….:D  xx

Well I’ve been away far too long I know, please forgive…got over the old swine flu (thank god I didn’t have it too bad it was bad enough in a mild dose) and then I’ve had to literally shut myself off from the world to finish the new CD. I virtually lost 2 working weeks with the flu so it takes some catching up let me tell you, but it is finally done, just the show prep now for Thursday.

Before I forget the entries for the Design Team are now closed but thanks to everyone who entered, we will be choosing soon, soooo exciting…

It’s quite exciting this week as we’re actually airing on Ideal World for the first time so it will be interesting to see if the larger audience makes a difference to us. I’m also hoping I might get to work with lovely Leonie this week too. So make sure you tune in on 3rd Dec at 2pm.  In the meantime here’s a sneak peek at the new CD…

…well I feel pants, I’ve been struck with the dreaded Swine Flu and it’s taking ages to get rid of it. Obviously it’s stinted my ability to work over the past week which has really put me behind with the new CD but hopefully when I get the antiviral today I should be able to kick it once and for all. Needless to say I can only have picked this up from the NEC so thanks whoever that kind person was and if I’ve infected anyone else since, I’m truly sorry! So I’m feelin’ a bit sorry for myself today, it seems to come and go, felt miles better yesterday and thought I was in recovery but today has knocked me for six I don’t mind telling you! BTW if you feel like you have a bad cold you just can’t shift just do the online assessment it only takes a couple of minutes and it’s best to get that medicine fast if you can or it will drag on and on!..

Anyway, the good news for all you guys out there is that we have a new Design  team call…

Hi all

Well it’s better late than never! I know I promised a tutorial for Sunday and it is still Sunday – just! Sorry this is so late but I’ve had technical problems with the video and it’s taken me about 4 hours and 3 attempts to do this tutorial and in the end I’ve lost a section but hopefully it’s not too bad! Hope you enjoy it and have a go.

If you would like to make this lovely 3D Christmas tree just watch the video…

Oh em geee it is ages since I blogged, I really must do it more often, just never seem to have the time when something funny happens and then I forget, as I age I am getting the memory and mind of a gnat. And the bladder too. I love Autumn and I love November – Halloween (yep I KNOW it’s Oct but it’s on the cusp, ok!), Bonfire Night, dark nights, warm radiators and the excitment of leading up to Crimbo. I like the build up more than the actual day – the pressies are always such a let down aren’t they! hahahah not that I’m materialistic or anything!

Anyways I’ve had a rather busy week, went to the NEC Hobbycrafts with me mucker Kirsty on Thursday – might have known it would turn into more of a roadtrip with her in tow, and as for the two of us together it was bound to be fraught with comedy moments. And it was. I set off to her house on what should have been a 1.5 hr journey – I arrived 4 hours later! Bloody Tom Tom – what does he know – nowt, that’s what!! I reckon now  I was less than 2 miles from her house for about 2.5 hours because the flipping technology kept sending me round and round in a circle any crafter would have been proud of. It didn’t help that the traffic was horrendous so every time I went down a wrong road it then took about half an hour to get back to the top of that road again. I seriously thought I was gonna pee my pants in the car and had to make a quick divert into what turned into a dead-end street and relieve myself behind a waste bin. Luckily it was a big one to hid my fat arse (I hope) and to anyone that saw me in the long queue of traffic 20 yards away and is now traumatised – I’m sorry but I just had to. And to the owner of the rubbish bin – I’m also sorry but it just mixed in with all the rat pee and the torrential rain washed it all over my feet anyway.  So eventually after having to get the DH to guide me a la Kirsty’s via a mobile phone lodged on top of me boobs and google earth as a guide, with me snivelling down the phone having gone beyond the point of miserable  I did get there evench. So we set off on another 1.5 hr journey to Birmingham which then took us 3 hours and 2 stops to try and find the elusive Krisy Kreme’s of which there were none and – thankyou all you greedy **** that didn’t leave us any in the services we were not impressed!

Needless to say when we got to the hotel which turned out to be at the airport, not the NEC as we found out, we realised there was only extorsh NCP parking. OMG. At this point I had totally lost the will to live after 7/8 hours of travelling and I didn’t care how much the parking cost me, we’d booked the hotel for 3 of us to share and someone dropped out so it had already cost me an arm and a leg anyway, what’s another 20 quid!  I’ve never seen someone look so pale at parking charges though, LMAO! Anyway we were very relieved to finally get in the room and hit the bar – only to find we couldnt even afford a glass of water between us. Ok, slight exaggeration but almost!  So we had the cheapest snack on the menu we could find and decided to retire. Needless to say this wasn’t without hilarity either (on my part anyway) as the sofa bed collapsed into a pile of  firewood, and for once it wasn’t me that was in it, so I nearly pee’d my pants for a second time in one day.  So up early Friday, we counted the few miserly pennies we had left and off we went, clutching our crumpled tickets, purses in hand! I couldn’t wait to buy all that stash. When I got inside I realised I was so knacked I could have just bogged off home quite happily but I managed to haul myself around all those lovely stands with their sparkly wares and part with a miserly 30 quid. I cannot believe I went to NEC and spent only 30 quid! But, I think the total cost of getting there and having to stay in a hotel had ruined it a bit for me, I kept thinking about how much more stash I could’ve bought with all that moolah the hotel had extracted from my sticky mitts.  Never mind, i had a good time and caught up with lots of peeps (Amanda Bateman you are sooooo racy you little minx, LOL!)  and met a couple of lovely ladies who were PD fans so it made it all worthwhile in the end. On the return journey we did manage to find the elusive Krispy Kreme’s but Kirsty hun, I really didn’t think they were all that!

So it was up early Saturday morning for a class and lucky for me my gals all took pity on me and were easy on me this week, thanks girls! With traipsing round all day my back is killing and my sciatica has returned, yayyy but they let me sit down for most of the class and I spent the rest of the day with my mum and watching X Factor (Lucie to win). So today I’m ensconced on my brand noo mammoth chair and I ain’t moving an inch, except to maybe make sausage and mash for Sunday lunch, yumster.  Anyway, I’ve already bored you to death I know, but here are the projjies we made yesterday, I really like these and I’m going to tidy up in a min and do a tutorial for that tree so check it out later today.

I really like this card and the girls did a great job with their versions. This is all made using the PD Crimbo Doodles rubber stamp set and a die cut strip from Bazzill’s Just The Edge Christmas. The poinsettia’s are coloured with marker pens and then layered up and I cut one flower in half to make the cascading leaves. White pen to doodle around the edge and there ya go…

This fab tree is SOOOOO easy to make and they loved this one.

This was made with papers from Jingle Jangles (love the festivities collection, it’s sooo wintery) and a selection of stamps from the Christmas Doodles stamp set to decorate.

Right, sausage and mash is callin, I’m off to fill my face and then I’ll be back to add the tute.

Halloween. It came, it went we were left with loads of sweets – why is it when you forget to get any and be prepared you get loads of kids knocking – when you are totally prepared you get barely any? Oh well, it was still cool, I love Halloween and I want it to be as big here as in the US. I didn’t dress up, I dont need to quite honestly, this mug peeping out from behind the door is enough to scare anyone, but I did make some dead cute little Halloween cones and I did eventually find some pumpkins to carve. Apparently we had the best sweeties and pumpkins for miles, well, yards anyway! lol! It chucked down with rain overnight so we left them out and then we could hear all the kids going to school oohing and aahing at them on Monday morning, bless them. Can’t wait till next year now, bring it on!

…well we’re back from Peterborough after the show and I just had to share this time’s little saga. I reckon it cant’ JUST be us that sh*t happens to, and if it does, it means we are both indeed the hand of death and the finger of woe after all. So…After arriving last night and raiding big M’s for a healthy tea (right!)  I got a craving for McNuggets, I LOVES ‘em I do!! And the OH also loves the Big Mac too. So after we both concurred that they are only a small portion and to hide our shame after sitting in already, we went and got in the car and went back through the drivethru for seconds!! Greedy fat pigs that we were!! Altho’ I do have to say we hadn’t eaten anything else except a bag of crisps in the car and we didnt actually have full meals so that makes it ok.  So we then had to sneak our calorie-ridden treats into the Hotel which houses the most miserable receptionist ever, so we tiptoed and sniggered our way back to the room and tucked in sharpish. Only  I had no curry sauce so the secret feast was spoiled totally for me and I almost threw a tantrum.  So there I am sitting minding my own business and all of a sudden there’s a shriek next to me. And I mean a shriek! Men are D.U.M.B.      There he is, sat in a chair dripping in caramel McFlurrie.  And I mean DRIPPING, as in dripping everywhere.  He doesnt move, just sits there looking at me like I should do something! And all he was bothered about was it was a brand new top and the first time out and he didnt have a spare with him! TUT!  So after I shouted at him uttering a few profanities, in typical man fashion he decided to stand up and just let it all drip everywhere else. So he got shouted at again.  Next thing,  trainers come flying out of the bathroom  - literally, flying in the air! After a minute or so I couldnt cope with the despair coming from the bathroom so I went in to find him trying pathetically to wash it off and I’ve never seen so much mess – watery ice cream goes a looooong looooong way.  Honestly, you have no idea and no, I do not have enough medals and yes, I do need one – a BIG one. So this was justice for overdosing on the old maccyD’s obviously.

So we get into bed to watch THAT Question Time with scourge of the earth Griffin (haha didnt he show himself up good and proper for what he is), and meladdo (who incidentally has a bottomless stomach and is skinny as a pin) decided to eat a stinky pot noodle. Yuk! My husband grazes constantly.  Anyway, he thought he could hide a certain smell with the stench of the stinky chicken and mushroom but NO! My nose is very sensitive and I protested in a rather loud screech – and, you guessed it, he jumped so much he threw his pot noodle everywhere!   When I tell ya that I despair now you know why.

So we get up this morning and before I leave the room I tripped on fresh air and have lightly sprained my foot. Great. Only me can do that. Whilst we were at the Studio, Kris had an encounter with something unpleasant which I dare not mench here but needless to say he hasn’t stopped going on about it yet and we will be dining out on that story for some time to come, ohhhh how much would some of you pay me to find out the juicy goss, hahahahaha it would be worth a forch! Any bids are welcome! Anyway, we do the show, and stop off in our fave place on the way home for a drink – and as I stirred my lushy strawberry milkshake I say “how funny would it be if I spilled ice-cream all down myself like you did last night”…yep. You guessed it.  So we both came home – in shame – and are clearly worthy of being on Jeremy Kyle. x

What a morning! Tsk tsk. Firstly I was rudely awakened at 7 with cat fur in my face where Mod had crept up and ensconsed his big ginger fatass on my pillow with my head still on it. Now I would normally shoo him off but I have to admit I quite liked the warm fluffy addition and he must have been feeling lonely as it’s the first time he’s ever done it. So I had a little furry cuddle with him for 10 mins till I had to go to the loo. I was so tired I got back into bed for another half hour but he launched – and I mean launched himself off in a fright.   So I just nodded off again and was woken again to the sound of a Jugonaut the size of Kennedy Space Station outside the house, banging and clashing and making a right old racket.  So I got up again to see what the hell was going off. I stuck my head out the curtains to have a skeggy and some random council worked in grubby overalls was looking at me in a frightened manner from about 10 feet away, I got the frikkin shock of my life!!  He was standing on top of a giant mound of dirt which was on the back of a massive lorry and was parked right outside the house filling in a tiny 2ft square hole they dug out last week, but because he was up so high he was on a level with our window! Good job I had me night attire on!  So I rapidly shut the curtains again not wanting to scare the poor fella, me and my haystack head on a  morning aint good, believe me, and determined to have a little longer snooze I crept back under the duvet. So then, I woke up at 10.30, yes 10.30 ! on a schoolday no less! eeeek! And now I’m all a kerfuffle cos my day is disrupted and I’ve got to go to the hairdressers in an hour or so. Hardly time to start work so I don’t think I’ll bother! I’ll wait till I get back and crack on later, so in the meantime I find a couple of hours spare to do some little bloggypoo’s and other stuff.

So what I’m actually supposed to be doing today is finishing off my demo’s for our Create and Craft show on Friday, which is 10 am, another early start, hurrahhh.  Last time we went down we used our new gadget “the Tom Tom” to find a local craft shop but I don’t think I am allowed to go in this time, I spent an absolute forch! Actually I DAREN’T go in to be honest, it was a lush mountain of irresistable stamps. sigh.  And I must confess I have a plethora of crafty parcels winging their way to me at the moment (they’re for classes, yeah yeah yeah) , and that’s on top of going to the NEC on Friday, think I will just have to make sure I take cash only or I know what will happen!  REALLY looking forward to the NEC, there’s me and 3 of my fave people coming too, I just know we will have a sidesplitting day of fun and food and more hilarity than you can poke a stick at. And aching feet and legs and a  creaking bank account I shouldnt wonder too.  But I’m looking forward to it because I’ve never actually been a VISITOR before so that will be an experience, so if you go and you hear some kerfuffle ahead and can see elbows flying, it will be me, bashing and elbowing my way in, trampling you all with my elephant feet along the way, hahahaha!!  So if you see me and me cronies (and they ARE cronies!LOL!) make sure you come over and say hello, I will be the one bent double like a pack-horse craning under the weight of stash!

Right, I’d seriously better go now, I have a shedload of work to do really and I think I’ve come round now, having just devoured a fishfinger sarnie. yumster!  Don’t forget to watch or record the show Friday, have some cute demo’s lined up including more burgers! xx