Canasta Morning & Pot Luck Lunch

There have been a few birthdays on the Palace calendar. Not all had a celebration but one that did was my friend, Pam, who reached 60. Her canasta playing buddies organised a surprise canasta morning followed by lunch for her. We all gathered at Mel's and were all adorned with party hats when Pam walked. Had a great morning playing canasta and rounded the day off with a pot luck lunch, with all of us bringing along something.

Some of the gang

Pam and Rose looking at her pressie

Happy St Andrews Day

Where do I begin, what a hectic few weeks this has been and as a result the Palace Noticeboard has been quite neglected.

Well today is St Andrews Day, a special day for us Scots, as it our patron saint's day. Not only is St Andrew the patron saint of Scotland, but he is also the patron saint of Russia and Greece. Although in Scotland there doesn't seem to be a lot done to celebrate St Andrews Day, for Scottish expats it is a day of celebrations. This year our celebrations were held on Thursday night with the Awali Callies holding their annual St Andrews Night Ball. So out come the kilts and posh frocks. Have to say I think Billy and I scrub up well, mind you I am a wee bit biased!!!!

The Awali Callies' Committee.

Andy Doherty, Me, Brian Tierney, Alistair Woods, Debbie Macleod, Jamie Bowden (British Ambassador to Bahrain), Sarah Bowden, Alistair Macleod, Nancy Shepherd and Billy.

For me, the preparations for the ball are quite hectic as being Secretary of the Callies, one of my jobs was to make the placecards, menus and seating plan lists done.

Not only that I had to the thank you cards to the guest speaker, John Rutherford, who gave the toast to St Andrews, the Glencraig Scottish Dance Band providing the music for the dancing. I have to say thanks to Jak, for the thistle image and backing paper.

I think John Rutherford summed up how many expats, not only scots but any nationality, feel about their heritage by finishing up his speech before toasting St Andrew with the chorus from the song 'Caledonia'

Let me tell you that I love you

And I think about you all the time

Caledonia you’re calling me, now I’m goin’ home

But if I should become a stranger

Know that it would make me more than sad

Caledonia’s been everything I’ve ever had.

Been Tagged

I've been tagged by Val.

With this tag I have to give 7 interesting facts about me. And pass the tag on to 7 more people, so here it goes:

1. My four favourite people in the world are, my darling husband of 25 years and my three wonderful works in progress, Tara, Sarah and Will.

2. Was born an expat brat. Boy does it cause hassle when I have to renew my passport.

3. Glad I was born a girl as my Dad always says that if I had been a boy I would have been called Basil.

4. Am Secretary of the Awali Callies, well someone needs to get the guys in order.

5. Am petrified of snakes.

6. My favourite places to eat are Trader Vics in Bahrain and think I would have to say Simpsons in Aberdeen.

7. Don't mind doing the supermarket shopping, but hate having to put it away.

Phew that was a struggle, now for the next struggle, tagging 7 blogs. Well here goes.

1. Louise's Asylum - well she did start this thing

2. Liz'sWeeScotchCorner

3. The Cazz Bar

4. Jak's Kitchen - she is such an inspiration

5. Cullen Crafts - close to home

6. Anne Marie

and finally

7. PeeJay

Cuttlebug Challenge

As I had a few bits left over from the card that I made using sheets from Funky Birthday Prints by Printable Heaven and seeing the Cuttlebug Challenge 6 which I thought I would put a card into into the challenge. So thought I would kill two birds with one stone so to speak, as I had to do a 60th birthday card for one of my canasta playing girlfriends, who happens happens to be the same person as my reflexologist friend had asked me to do a card for earlier in the week.

Anyone with a sweet tooth

If you have a bit of a sweet tooth and fancy a wee bit of candy, nip over to Funky Fairy Inspirations corner shop for a bit.

The Last Of This Week's Cardmaking

After getting the family and friend's cards done for November settled down to get the cards I had been asked to do done. These first two are for one of my canasta playing friends daughter and son-in-law's birthdays. For the daughter's card used various sheets from Funky Birthday Prints by Printable Heaven and used the Boss Kut Large 50's Flower, Medium Flower and Diva Flowers dies for embellishments.

For her son-in-law's card followed the instructions on how to fold shirts and used matching papers for the backing - unfortunately I can't remember the name of the paper range.

The last two are for my reflexologist friend who has two girlfriends with birthdays this month, one being a 60th birthday. Went back to K&Company Designer Paper set by Amy Butler called Sola. On the square card, first of all cut a square of the designer paper just slightly smaller than the card. On top of that matted another square, slightly smaller again. Then cut four squares which I embossed with the D'vine Swirl embossing folder, then another four smaller squares again. Then topped it off with the Large 50's Flower from Boss Kuts.

For the final card, the 60th birthday one, matted on a C6 card base a rectangle which is slightly smaller that the card base. Then cut 7 strips which I embossed using the D'vine Swirl embossing folder which I stuck down in an offset pattern. Torn a strip of co-ordinating paper and then used a dotted line to give the impression of stitching. The embellishment from was from a flower set from Accessorize. And finished it off with the sentiment - Here's to the 39th anniversary of your 21st birthday'.

November's Family & Friends

Can't believe November is here already and ahead of me a busy month. Spent the last few days getting the cards done for November, so that I can spend some time with Will who is arriving on Friday for a fortnight. While he is here, we have the party to celebrate Billy and my silver wedding and his birthday. Then we finish off the month with the St Andrews Night Ball.

November is one of my busy month for birthdays and anniversaries, 5 birthdays including mine and 1 wedding anniversary all in the space of 8 days.

We kick off with Will's birthday and on the same day it is Kelly Ann's birthday, Sarah best buddy. Will's one, was a difficult one to come up with a theme for, until I saw the image of the Singapore Sling. All I did was matted the image on red and cream card and mounted on brown card stock and printed off the sentiments on cream card and matted it on the same red card as the image.

For Kelly Ann, used a Paper Nation Kimono Lady decoupage sheet and mounted it on chinese/japanese style wrapping paper and used the scalloped oval nestability to cut out the sentiment which I had printed out.

Then 5 days later then next on my card list is my mum and dad's wedding anniversary. Now looking at the card colours, I should maybe keep it for next year for their golden wedding anniversary. Used an image which I have used before which I call 'Lovers Kiss', matted it on the same brown cardstock that I used for Will's card. I embossed a piece of coffee coloured pearlescent card and use the bosskuts tag ties for the sentiment and finished it off with a cream ribbon bow.

On the same day as mum and dad's wedding anniversary, is Shona's birthday, a long time family friend.

The final one, 3 days after mum and dad's anniversary, it is Sarah's birthday. As Sarah loves shopping thought the image fitted the bill. The backing paper is from contemporary christmas range from Printable Heaven. Finished it off by printing off the sentiment and then used the oval and scalloped oval to the topper. Finally finished it off with a peel off saying which I coloured in pink.

My First Craft Fair

As I said a few posts ago, I was helping a friend out at her stall at a local craft fair and she allowed me to sell some of my cards on the stalls. So on Saturday morning off I toddled to the fair with my stock of cards. After a really busy day on the stall selling my friend's goods and selling a few of my cards, I came home shattered. Didn't realise how much I sold till I got home and counted up my takings. I made just over £100, so was well chuffed with myself.