I'm Back in the land of the living ! It has been an eventful 3 weeks but the surgery went well and I am now at home recovering and beginning to spend a little more time each day at my craft desk. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their care, thoughts and prayers over these last 3 weeks. Knowing there are so many people that care for me certainly helps the healing process.

I have been trying to get on top of a couple of Christmas presents whilst I have the time and also as I am hoping to go to the UK for 10 days to finish my recuperation it makes sense to try and take as many with me rather than risk posting them.

So far I have just made this Jewellery tin for my niece, good job she is too young to look on here ! (sorry Karin if I spoil your surprise) I bought the tin from Hobby Lobby for about $6 and got a very good friend to make me the cushion for the inside. I then set about decorating the edges and top. It was actually a really easy project and I think it is very effective. Hopefully Princess Emma will enjoy putting all her crown jewels in it.

I have made a couple of these Tic Tac snowmen boxes as little stocking fillers for friends and family. I got the idea from the Cricut web site and then just worked out my measurements to work around a large pack of Tic Tacs. A very cost saving gift that I hope will bring a smile to peoples faces.

Typical for me though, I decided if you can make a Christmas gift from Tic Tacs, then why not a birthday gift ? I am not as happy with this one as I was unable to get the flower to have as large a centre as I wanted, and therefore show the sweets . However it is now on its way to the UK and I hope the birthday girl will like it.

Last week was our 24th wedding anniversary (how did that happen? and when did I get old enough to be married that long ?) well I forgot to organise a card before going into hospital which was really stupid as I ended up only coming out 36 hrs before the big day, well bless my DH he went and bought a card for me to give him, knowing how upset I would be. But in true Sue style, (determined and stubborn) I decided I could make card! Well this is the result, I went for very simple and could not believe how much effort and energy it took. By pure coincidence it has 24 crystals on it! I of course told him it was deliberate.

My Sisters birthday is next week so a card for her was next on the plan, again I had to go for a simple design as for some reason my crafting brain had left me for the 1st week I was home. I am always thinking I should clear out some of my older crafting items, but then I go ahead and make a card with probably my oldest clear stamp. Oh well maybe instead of getting rid of stuff I should just get more drawer space. At this point my DH and DD will scream...... NO MORE DRAWERS!

This last card for today is for someone who has recently lost their husband, I wanted to make a very simple sympathy card and hope I succeeded. Both this card and the 'LOVE' card were made using my latest Cricut cartridge 'Storybook' which I am loving.

Well I think I will sign off now as have been sitting at the computer for long enough today. I hope to get back to updating this weekly now.

Thank you for looking and any comments are much appreciated.

Have a good week

Sue