Birthday, Presents, Cake, Cards and Wins

Morning everyone, finally made it.  Had a couple of jobs to do first then neighbour rang as apparently there was a wallaby in the yard this morning and the son had locked the dogs (2 great danes) in the house.  So I have been over letting them out, making sure the wallaby has gone and then letting the horse out of the back paddock and into the front.   Then come home to my dog who sniffs me like a vacuum for all the smells.  All sorted now and bonus the sun is shining.

Well it was my birthday yesterday and a wonderful day it was.   This is the cake I made ..... a spice cake.  Thought I would take a leaf out of our daughters icing book and fancy the cake up with a few colours.  Our daughter had organised a surprise party with four of her mates for one other friend on the weekend for her birthday.  DD also cooked a cake for her friend.  So after a busy, fun and sleepover weekend she just did not have the energy to cook a cake for me.  :-)

I shared the cake with my family and Mum, Dad, SIL, nieces and nephew.  Hubby even surprised me and came home early from work. :-)  Earlier in the day I had coffee with a wonderful friend and we chatted about craft.....well chatted about something she has finally got me hooked on.  See below.

Tea time was Pizza...yum....followed by sharing of the Tobelerone chocolate box that I received and then to finished off with a very small glass of Lemoncillo.  Such a terrific day.

This is my present from my son.  I supplied the wood and he designed and constructed.

These folders contain my papers all sorted into colours.   They have been surviving as I did have three bookends but all of this got pack away for Cyclone Yasi and do you think I can find those bookends.  No!

So now with this wonderful bookcase my folders stay up straight and I now have another shelf to add/spread my crafting too.

The bookend in the photo is one I stole from the family room and trying to survive with.

This is the beautiful card that my Mum made for me.   It is all 3D paper tole....including the little topper on the very front.

Don't you just love the textures in this card.   This is from my lovely friend Rachel who I used to ride to school with in our primary years.  

This card is from Helen who is the lady that gave me coffee and muffin on my birthday morning.

This is also the lady the is feeding my desire to get into Copics.   See below.

Another talented friend.  This lady Joy takes the most amazing photos and she has used one that she has taken for her card.  

This wonderful card was created by friend Helene.

Now.... Copics.  I have been watching how everyone colour with these and seeing how vibrant the colours were.  The price however has always kept me at bay.  As I already have my watercolour pencils that work just fine.  I have had a marker E51 in my possession for a while which I have used for colouring skin.  Stacie added to my collection with a lovely pink Ciao last year. 

My friend Helen who has really enjoyed colouring with Copics for a while now said she had ordered a pile of copics on Ebay and would I like to buy the double ups.

Helen is a great bargain shopper and these pens were a good price that I couldn't pass up.

So now I have 16 pens in my collection.   The above photo shows them all as well as the my first fully coloured Tilda using Copics.  They are so nice to use.  Of course now I need more shades and a couple more colours, like green, yellow, red and orange.

Luckily, it was my birthday as my wonderful friends have given me a voucher to Bizzy Becs so I can buy a few more colours and some X Press It card.

:-)

Got to keep going.  Need to see where we are up to with the Relay for Life team that now looks to have grown to three teams of very committed people.  I also have to get my act together and start on some Oral Histories from the locals of Gordonvale to be shown/played at the Museum.

Who needs a day time job. :-)

Have a terrific Tuesday.

Oh, almost forgot.  I have been so very lucky too.  I won Michele's Clean Out Candy.  Some fun looking rubber stamps.   I also won some lovely digis from Limited Run (I got some cupcake images)  for the Things with Wings challenge at Papercrafting Journey.