ASM en final!

Some photos of yesterday's adventure in Marseille. We left the stadium in Clermont at 8 am. (I think there were 32 of us on the bus), Isabelle who had organised everything had brought 'petit dejeuner' of apple chaussons and croissants, yoghurts, coffee, you name it, she thought of it. We said that all she needed was a hostess trolley like in an aeroplane to serve us all! The kids were all in heaven being allowed free reign with their electronic games meaning that the adults had peace and quiet! We stopped in Avignon for a buffet lunch before arriving in Marseille where we had a police escort to the stadium.

Abbey did a great job of face painting the kids, although after doing one half of Greg's face we realised he didn't have his ASM t-shirt on so it all had to be cleaned off and re-done (carefully due to his nose). Unfortunately it was so hot that by half-time they all wanted it cleaned off as it was making them feel too hot. We had earphones to listen to the referee which Greg enjoyed, I think he thought he was like his Dad. Our seats were quite near the pitch so the boys enjoyed getting a few words with Neil before the start of the game. The atmosphere was great although I must remember not to sit next to Kelly in Paris (only joking) as she sings even rugby songs with a gorgeous voice!

The worst part was hanging around to leave Marseille, we stopped at a service station and ate around 10pm. before arriving in Clermont again at 3.30 am. It was a great day and I was glad that I had no occasion to panic about losing Greg which I was fearful of. He took my warnings and stayed pretty close to me throughout for a change.

So, we've it all to do again next Saturday night in Paris against Toulouse, can't wait, ALLEZ ASM!!!!!!!!!!!

Another card from Kate.

Today's card came from Kate in Normandy, she sent it along with a cheque for a Stampin'Up! order she'd made. Her card arrived the day her order arrived at her house, fair exchange. I love how she used the 'Cuttlebug' to get the polka dot effect on the base card and I agree that the bird is cute Kate! I did try to take the photo outside but it came out either too bright or with too many areas of shadow, not that I'm complaining one little bit about the sunshine!

We're off to Marseille tomorrow at 8 am. to watch the match at 5 pm. The boys now have new ASM caps as the forecast is hot, hot, hot. I'm kitted out with a new t-shirt as well so we're ready and raring to go. Must remember to charge up those Nintendos though! 12 hours in a bus!!!!!!!!!

I forgot to say thank you to everyone for their concern over Greg's nose, it is on the mend although got another knock in the playground yesterday. It's not too badly bruised, just yellow enough to co-ordinate with his new ASM cap!

Ryan & Greg's cards

______________________________I thought I'd post some pictures of cards which Ryan and Greg made yesterday. We have a lot of birthdays in July and August in the family so I asked the boys to make some cards to take the pressure of me and keep them off their Nintendos for an hour! Now that I have a new set of Stampin'Up! markers I don't mind that they use my old ones which they find quite a treat because for years I've banned them from even going near them! I think it's quite easy for anyone who knows the boys and their characters to guess who made which cards!

Greg's nose!

Not such a happy picture of Greg today! I had a call from his teacher this morning to say that he'd ran into another child in the playground and had hurt his nose (the other child was okay). Quick visit to the doctor then an x-ray to confirm that it's broken. No cards today I don't think, mum is needed for cuddles on the sofa!

Yesterday's match.

ASM played Dax yesterday and won 95-7 much to the boys' delight. I think I'll have to find some stronger face paint for the game on Saturday at Marseilles against Perpignan. Ryan and Greg are happy that the game is at Marseilles on Saturday and not Bordeaux on the Sunday as they have to miss Saturday morning school to go. Greg spent a few minutes learning the proper words to the official Jaune et Bleu 'hymn' in practice for next week as well as having a temporary tattoo of the ASM badge put on his arm. Going to Marseilles does mean a 12 hour return trip on a bus but they're already imagining how much Nintendo time their batteries will give them fully charged up!



The last photo shows the boys with Sam Pope, their babysitter, who is going to England for unversity after the summer. They're devastated but consoled by the fact that Sam's brother Ben is stepping up to the job vacancy.

Before I go I just want to say Happy Birthday to Belinda in South Africa, She's -- today and I had a good chat with her this morning. I miss the time we used to spend together when we lived near Beziers and wish we could have a coffee together and a good old natter. Belinda has a scrap shop now in Cape Town and there is a link to 'Let's talk Scrap' on the left side of this page. Belinda was like an aunty to Ryan and Greg and it's a shame that they don't see her now and that we don't know her daughter Kelly. That's life I suppose but it's sometimes sad when friends are apart.

Special offer until the end of July!

We've just had news today of the offer available to new demonstrators signing up before the end of July. It's detailed below in French and if anyone wants to join my team or ask me any questions about being a demonstrator and the start up kit then please get in touch.

Offre promotionelle jusqu'au fin juillet.

Rejoignez-nous en juin ou en juillet !
Pendant les mois de juin et de juillet, il est encore plus facile de rejoindre la famille Stampin’ Up!.
Entre le 15 juin et le 31 juillet, lorsque vous devenez démonstratrice, vous recevez non seulement le fantastique kit de mise en route, mais vous recevez aussi un set de tampons GRATUIT de votre choix dans le Livre d'idées et Catalogue 2007-2008 -- à hauteur d'une valeur de 62,95 €!
Ceci signifie que, si vous devenez démonstratrice avant le 31 juillet, vous pourrez démarrer avec plus de 396 € de produits d'estampage uniques Stampin' Up! de qualité supérieure, pour seulement 225 € !
Alors, qu'est-ce que vous attendez ? Contactez votre démonstratrice AUJOURD’HUI pour nous rejoindre en juin ou en juillet ! Si vous n'avez pas encore de démonstratrice Stampin' Up!, nous pouvons vous aider à en trouver une dans votre région.

Anne's card.

Today I have another card made using June's Stampin'Up! promotion. I saw the technique on Michelle's blog and altered it a little. I love the way she made the vase using the Sanded background stamp.

The 'merci' card was given to me by Anne, thank you if you are reading this! It's got pride of place on the mantlepiece just now, only till Sunday mind you as i'm sure the boys will have made some Father's day cards at school.

Time for my cards!

Does anyone else wonder where time goes?

I have no idea just that there is never enough time for me to make my own cards! Father's Day on Sunday and I haven't got my cards off to Scotland, I'll have to blame the post again!

I made the one with 'Eve' on the other day for a friend to give to her niece, I love the colour combination of 'tarte au potiron' and 'old olive'. The others have been made today and I did get to the Post Office with my Father's Day cards but they probably won't be there on time. The 2 cards with the flowers at the bottom right hand side were inspired by cards from the blog of 'Michelle Allen'. Since I saw them on her blog I've been dying to make them, she makes some gorgeous cards and mostly all with Stampin'Up! stamps. Keep up the good work Michelle.

It's the 30th birthday of Neil's cousin Cara (today I think). If you're reading this Cara, the one with the red flower is winging it's way to you but probably won't reach you until Monday, hope the bbq goes well and it stays dry!!!

That's it for today, Anne gave me a lovely card today which I'll post tomorrow as I forgot to take a photo in daylight.

12 free stamp sets!

Well, here's my box of goodies which arrived this morning from stampin'Up! I've earned 12 free sets for my work since joining up as a demonstrator in November, what a hard choice it was to pick 12 and of course now they all have to be cut and mounted. One of the sets includes 'Happy Father's day' in French, I need to get my skates on to get a couple of cards made tomorrow to send to Scotland. I'm always at the last minute with my own cards, I don't know why.

The card was made by a set given to me by my friend Angie in America, I love the 'rose red' or 'rouge rose' colour of the cardstock. Okay, I'd better go and get that stamp set ready to use tomorrow.

My new markers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My friendly UPS guy has just been and I have my new markers, yippee. Aren't they gorgeous! I use my markers on nearly every card I make and I think they're the one thing I couldn't work without when I'm stamping. The full box is not cheap, I know, but they are such good quality and the colours so bright and co-ordinated with all the cardstock and ink pads in the SU! line. I earned these through my work as a demonstrator since November and as a surprise the Happy Hearts stamp set was included in my parcel.

I'm having such a good time and meeting so many new people as a Stampin'Up! demonstrator, it's very satisfying and even more so with rewards like this. Have a good day, I'm certainly smiling despite 'la pluie'.

Vichy

Last night we went to 'l'Hippodrome' in Vichy to watch some horse racing in the rain, it was a miserable night and could have been so much better with some sunshine. 6 ASM players/staff were chosen to ride in one of the races and this is as good a photo as I could get of them doing their warm up lap. Neil was in the race and came in last, he says he was so behind he nearly came first! After there was a dinner although I don't think the organisers had counted on us bringing the kids, it was certainly difficult to wake them up for school this morning.

Yesterday afternoon, my newest Stampin'Up! recruit Caroline phoned to ask if I could help her decorate some candles for a gift she wanted to give to a friend. It's fun and quick to do and I loved what we did. If anyone wants to see how to do it you can find a tutorial on splitcoaststampers, there is a link on the left hand side of this page.

I'm waiting on UPS delivering a present to me this morning, a brand new set of 48 Stampin'Up! markers. I earned them for my work in the past 6 months with Stampin'Up!. I have a box which I bought 5 years ago and they are still working well but there are a few new colours which I don't have. It also means that I won't be so paranoid about the kids using the older ones. I'll post a picture of them when they arrive!

Happy Birthday Michaela!!!

In case anyone hasn't noticed it's Michaela's 40th birthday (yes really, I know she doesn't look it) today. Tuesday morning's coffee and biscuits was replaced with 'capuccino cake and champagne'. Her son Daniel who is 3 loved the cake slice which plays the tune of 'Happy Birthday'. We even showed the French women how to make 'Bucks Fizz'. I'm glad her birthday is here, at least I don't have to make any more 40th birthday cards for a while! We bought her some vouchers for the local beautician she uses so she can be pampered a bit more. I think her husband is taking her out for lunch today and just to carry on her celebrations the coffee lot are going out to lunch also.

If anyone local to Clermont is reading this (and can read English of course) there is an exposition on in Lempdes this week of Anne's scrap association. It's in the hall next to the Mairie and Anne has set up a display of all our work since last September. I'll be there this afternoon and on Friday afternoon.

Better go and get ready to go out to lunch, it's a hard week this week with so many social engagements!!!! Bon apetite!

Nearly 40!

It's my Irish friend Michaela's 40th birthday tomorrow, we celebrated it in style and lots of noise (15 femmes) on Saturday night. The photo shows her opening her present which we clubbed together to buy, vouchers for treatments at the Sofitel Spa in Vichy. She loved the vouchers but was more impressed with the babysitting offer which went along with it!

We ate in Le Grange pizzeria in Pont-du-Chateau then crossed the road to dance the night away in the nightclub L'Aquarius. The music left a bit to be desired but we all had good fun, now know what it's like inside and probably won't rush back. I shouldn't speak for everybody though!

Michaela and I have coffee (and free French lessons) with 6 French women on Tuesday mornings, as tomorrow's is Michaela's actual birthday we're going to have it at her house with champagne and cake (which I'm supposed to be making this afternoon).

Yesterday we had 2 French families for a bbq lunch, not the best idea after only getting to bed at 3am! I can't believe it's June already and we have a crazy month planned with one thing and another, the summer holidays will be here before we know where we are.

I need to post a message soon with the Stampin'Up! offers for June, there are 3 of them and I'd like to base a few classes around them. Watch this space. Byeeeeee