The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

THE BAD/UGLY: It’s been an unbelievable few weeks in our household! Almost 4 weeks ago we got burgled… in broad daylight!! I nipped home from work at lunchtime because I was expecting a courier parcel to find the said parcel tampered with on the front door step.

Then I unlocked the front door and found ICE CUBES all over the kitchen floor and both the fridge and freezer doors wide open… to be honest I muttered something about “blinken girls not closing the freezer properly” and proceeded to pick up all the ice cubes (which were only a little bit melted).

Then I opened up the courier parcel on the dining room table and checked to see what was missing. By this stage I’d already been inside for about 5 minutes and still hadn’t realised what had happened.

Then I came around the corner into the lounge and saw the backdoor swinging in the wind…. realisation hit FAST!!! I rushed into my craft room and sure enough my laptop was GONE!!

Next it was down to Krystal’s room and her laptop was GONE!! I rang my sister and told her and while I was doing that I realised that there was a LOT of stuff gone!!!

Anyone who has been through this will not be surprised that the next minute I was crying my eyes out…. it’s amazing how emotional you get about things like this. I remember crying because whoever had been inside my home had walked all over my VERY clean kitchen floor that I’d scrubbed on hands and knees the night before!

Over the next 24 hours we realised the extent of the burglary… apart from the laptops there was also all the other techno gadgets that a typical home with teenagers has… cameras, playstations, MP3 players etc and along with that clothing (only mine so does that mean I have ‘cooler’ clothes than the girls??), food (yes they took ALL our meat, bread, milk and chocolate yoghurts… they did leave us the fruit ones!) plus all my family jewellery… and all of this happened between 9.30 and midday!

Almost 4 weeks later we’re finally getting things sorted… which means we can finally get back to doing the things we enjoy like blogging :)

One thing I’ve learnt from this experience is that I’m VERY blessed to have so many good friends and my Scrapbook Dreams family! Thank you all so much for everything you’ve done… the calls, visits, texts, and emails have been amazing! And to all the girls on the forum a HUGE thank you for being there every step of the way! You’re all amazing in my opinion!!

And now for something GOOD :)

I’ve been busy this morning creating my first easel card… and they’re ridiculously easy to make! In fact I had so much fun with it that it’s going to be our Mid Month Motivation on the Scrapbook Dreams forum :)

The finished card measures 4 1/4 inches square and I really love it. Here’s the front:The bird is made from Grungepaper which I inked and stamped :) If you look in the lower right hand corner you will see a wax seal I added too.

This is the inside of the card:I used one of my new stamps (from Stampin Up) for the sentiment and I layered that on a piece I tore from an old book. Quite by accident the text from the book reads: I sat there feeling at peace with all the world while I waited and it was grand not having to talk for a bit.

Here’s what the card looks like when it’s sitting ‘open’: I really love how it all turned out! You might be wondering about the ‘easel’ part of the card… maybe this will explain: After making just one of these I’ve totally gotten into them so I’m sure you’ll be seeing lots more of this style of card from me in the future :)

Now if you REALLY like it here’s a couple of options for you!!

• You could make your own using the tutorial I’m putting on Scrapbook Dreams.
• You could WIN this particular card by becoming a follower and leaving a comment on the Scrapbook Dreams blog!!

I hope you’ll have a go at making you’re own :)

Happy Scrapping from me xxx