Monday, November 24, 2008

An update on me....

I am at home now after having my operation (hysterectomy) last Tuesday, 18th, and I am feeling very tired, VERY sore and just generally YUK!
The operation was a bit more complicated than expected so rather than the original "small" 3 centimetre incision that I had expected, I woke up to an incision that runs all of the way from my left hip to my right hip!!! DOUBLE YUK!!
Anyway, it is what it is!! And there is nothing to do about it now but rest and concentrate on getting better. My doctor says it will now take about 8 weeks until I am feeling better and about 5 months until I am completely recovered, so it is still early days.
I would really like to say a HUGE thank you to those of you who have posted comments and sent emails......Bec, Sam, Sarah-Jane Kale, Makeesha and the very lovely Jane M. Thank you so much, your words have meant a lot to me.
Well I hope to be back on here typing away and posting cards soon, until then......keep safe,
Danneil. x

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Out of action......

Well, that is it from me for a while.
As I have mentioned in a previous post, I am going in for a rather big operation on Tuesday morning and I will be spending the next few weeks recovering and resting (if possible!). Tomorrow I will be preparing meals for my family and getting some of the washing done so that Paul has everything that he needs to look after our girls while I am away from home. (so I won't have time to post anything else here).
I hope that some of you will still pop in to visit me and check out my work when I get back to card making and blogging.
Where ever you are in the world.......I hope that you are safe and happy.
(Oh, and don't forget to try out the chocolate cake recipe below.)
Danneil. x

Easiest chocolate cake recipe ever!!!!

Hello ladies,
Thought that I would pop this up here for those of you who might be interested.

Chocolate Cake.....
50g butter.
1 cup self raising flour.
1/2 cup of milk.
1 teaspoon vanilla essence.
3 tablespoons cocoa.
1 cup white sugar.
2 eggs.

Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees.
Place all ingredients in a bowl and blend with electric mixer for one minute (until combined).
Pour into prepared cake tin and bake in the oven for around 40 minutes or until cooked.

Chocolate Butter Icing.....
1 1/2 cups icing sugar.
60g butter (softened, NOT MELTED!).
2 tablespoons boiling water.
1/4 teaspoon vanilla.
1/4 cup cocoa.

Put all ingredients into a bowl and mix until combined to make a thick and creamy chocolate butter icing.
Do not add any more liquid than what is required by the recipe or the icing will become runny. You will need to stir it a bit until the butter is mixed in.

THAT'S IT! How easy is that?!? I love those "just chuck all the ingredients in a bowl and mix" recipes, don't you?
Try it out and let me know what you think.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Kristina's Colour Challenge #30.

Last night I sat down at the computer, after the children were in bed, to read the news and I read the story about 2 children that had died in one of our local suburbs here in Perth. It made me feel very sad for the family and feel very lucky that my children were all safely tucked up in their beds. Then I started to check out a few blogs and when I came to Kristina's blog and saw this colour challenge it immediately made me think of leaves blowing in the wind and a sympathy card. So this is what I came up with for the challenge....
The wind is drawn by hand and because I don't have a Sahara Sand marker I had to draw it with a blender pen and the inside lid of the ink pad! I added a bit of glitter to the wind to give it some shimmer (not sure if it is appropriate to put glitter on a sympathy card?? What do you think?). If you click on the picture you can see the glitter.
Anyway, thanks for looking.

Stamps: petal prints, warmest regards. Inks: sahara sand, old olive, certainly celery. Card stock: sahara sand, old olive, certainly celery, whisper white. Accessories: Dazzling Diamonds. Tools: stamp-a-majig.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Christmas baubles....

OK, so if you regularly surf the Internet then you have probably seen these 'bauble' cards on a few blogs already. Sarah has recently done one here and a while back Tracey did one here.
So when I had to come up with a make and take for a workshop that was planned at very short notice, I decided to go ahead with this idea because it was quick, easy and effective.
In the first photo the strings that the baubles are hanging from are a bit hard to see because they are stamped in silver but I think you get the idea. If you need to click on the image to make the picture bigger.

We made the blue version of this card for the workshop which was a huge hit with the ladies on the day, but since then a few people have commented that they like the traditional red and green Christmas colours so I decided to see what it looked like in those colours. Not sure which one I prefer. What do you think?

Thanks for dropping by. My eldest daughter turns 5 years old tomorrow so I won't be back until Thursday with another offering....see you then.

Stamps: So swirly wheel, Many merry messages, Hung up on the holidays. Inks: Encore silver, Brocade blue, Real red, Always artichoke. Card stock: Real red, whisper white, always artichoke, brocade blue, night of navy. Accessories: Dazzling diamonds. Tools: Jumbo wheel, stamp-a-majig, circle punches.




A baby card for Neila.

My niece Neila, who lives in Melbourne, recently gave birth to a baby boy, Dylan. So while I had out the Greetings Galore stamp set to make a card for Sarah-Jane's baby girl, Ella, I thought that I would put it to good use and make a card for Neila as well.
The two cards are very similar because I used the same template for both cards but I changed them slightly to suit the gender of each baby. Hope that you like the card and keep visiting because there are more cards to come.

Stamps: Greetings galore. Inks: Pretty in pink, Brocade blue, Chocolate Chip, Close to cocoa. Card stock: Brocade blue, Bashful Blue, Night of navy, Water colour paper, Pool party DSP (retired). Accessories: Blue Gingham Ribbon. Tools: Scallop circle punch, Blender pens, Mat pack.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

A cyber congratulations for Sarah-Jane.....

As promised in a recent post, I am trying to get a few projects up on here this week (with Paul's help) because our computer is still a bit 'under the weather'. So this morning we managed to import a few photos from the camera so that I will have some projects to post on my blog over the next few days. So on to the first card.....

If you have not yet visited Sarah-Jane Kale's blog then I recommend that you do. Her cards are always beautiful and she is just a really lovely person. Anyway, Sarah-Jane and her husband recently welcomed their newest family member, baby Ella and I wanted to make Sarah-Jane a card to congratulate her on the safe arrival of her baby girl. This is what I made...

I had no idea where to send the card so I thought that I would 'post' it on the Internet and send a cyber card!! Heheheh.


Hope that you like the card and especially that Sarah-Jane likes it! I will be back later with something else to show you. Thanks for visiting.
Stamps: Greetings galore. Inks: Regal rose, Pretty in pink, Chocolate chip, Close to cocoa. Card stock: Regal rose, Rose red, Pretty in pink, Palette 'o' prints sampler pad DSP, Spring fling DSP, Water colour paper. Accessories: Regal rose wide grosgrain ribbon. Tools: Scallop circle punch, Blender pens, Mat pack (paper piercing).





Thursday, November 6, 2008

A present for Lucy.

Last week I took Miah to her first Fairy birthday party. The birthday girl Lucy, who turned 5, invited all of the girls from their kindy class, no boys, (there are only 9 girls in the whole class) and they were all dressed up as fairies. We bought her a Disney Princess DVD and this is how I wrapped it....

This is the first time that I have made a "tag" for a present and I was so pleased with the way that it turned out and how easy it was, that I will definitely make more of them (probably for Christmas presents).
I love these colours together and I love the effect that a little bit of Dazzling Diamonds gives to the tag.

I will try be back with more to show you tomorrow, hopefully with Paul's help. Keep safe and thanks for visiting.
Stamps: Riveting. Inks: Soft Subtles markers. Cardstock: Slumber party DSP, Palette o Prints DSP, Perfect Plum, Pretty in pink, Whisper white. Accessories: Celery wide grosgrain ribbon. Tools: Circle punches, Scallop circle punch, Mat pack (paper piercing).



Do things really happen in 3's?

They say that things happen in 3's.....and even though that is just a 'saying' it really seems to happen that way....at least, it does to me!!!
The first thing that happened recently you would already know about if you regularly pop in to check out my blog. I was absent for a while due to my children all being sick but they are all better now and we are back on track.
Then just when things were back into the normal groove, Paul decided to put an extra "hard drive" into our computer and in his haste the whole system CRASHED and it looked like we had lost EVERYTHING!!! So anyway, after a lot of research and what has seemed like an eternity he has finally gotten it back up and running but the computer doesn't detect that thingy that comes out of the camera with the photos on it anymore, so I can't upload any photos of my cards unless Paul is home to sort it out for me. I will try to get him to upload some for me tonight when he gets home.
And finally I will be absent again for a little while because I am going in for surgery on the 18th of November and have been told that I MUST REST for at least 4 weeks after that.
See....things happen in 3's.
Anyway, between now and the 18th I will endeavour to post a few cards with Paul's help and maybe a couple of great recipes while I am at it.